I actually had an idea of what I wanted before I started. Whoa. This piece was for the Creative Dichotomy challenge. I of course chose Irina, because well duh. I decided to just work on the obvious dichotomy of mother vs terrorist. I didn't want to think too hard.

I started with a a background of light brown, added the stock pick of the hallway on soft light. I then decided to add a bit of color by taking a 200 px soft paint brush and just dabbing it around. I then blurred the blue and set it to soft light.