Thanks, Veralisa. I spent a large part of my career creating technical illustration drawings for mechanical systems along with conceptual and presentation pieces. These were precision drawings with details showing dimensions and how the systems were to be fabricated and constructed including 3-D computer-generated renderings.

The pieces that I create now are solely for my enjoyment and they are the polar opposite as they are fast and loose leaving much for the eye to fill in for the fantasy of my creations.

Thank You so much !!! and you're very welcome, glad to share. No atmosphere filter in Photoshop, it was done with several overlay layers. First was a layer of a similar color with some fog brushed in and blended at a low opacity using the soft light blend mode, next left top corner toward the hummingbird was a textured light ray overlay blended using the screen blend mode, then using a mask, brushed out where I didn't want it, then above that was a golden sunlight ray blurred and blended with screen, and above that was a dust overlay blended with screen and again masked out where i didn't want the dust to appear. The background texture itself was done with 2 different texture layers. Delighted you enjoyed it !!!

A special thanks to everyone in this section for making it a very enjoyable and inspirational year! The creativity in this section is over the top. As we all know, it takes time to post and give details on the behind the scenes creations. It is greatly appreciated. On another note, and I hope it's okay, I would like to share what has become a traditon in our family on Christmas morning. It's a wonderful story about sharing and showing kindness. I think I have shared this with some of you in the past, but here it is for those of you that haven't heard it:

https://www.npr.org/2005/12/09/5028755/john-henry-faulks-christmas-story