Random: Burn it all to the ground.

It's been a while, Steemit.

I'm feeling rather destructive these past few weeks, so let's start with a few opening verses.

It is said that heresy is like a tree.
Its roots lie in darkness while its leaves wave in the sun.
You can prune away its branches, even cut the tree to the ground.
Yet it will grow again, ever stronger.
Such is the nature of heresy and why it is so difficult to destroy.
Some may question my right to destroy a world of ten billion souls.
But for those who truly understand, realize I have no right to let them live.
No sacrifice is too great. No treachery too small.
_{^{[ "source of inspiration" scene ]}}

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I kind of thought what I was going to aim for is someone dropping down bolts of power from above space to shatter a planet, because that's how "destructive" I'm feeling. And somehow it turned into someone dropping a frakking sun on something. As for why it's a gentleman in a tophat, don't ask. I just kind of threw it all together.

I tend to be pretty moody when it comes to making things like these, and it wasn't the first time I have made something as an expression of my thoughts at the time.

I haven't been introducing my style of painting really well to you Steemians, however those who have known me before knows how fixated I am with rendering... fiery things.

Flames. Fire. Destruction. <-- I just wanted to get these three words out of my mouth, it somehow makes me feel good saying it.

---

So a breakdown from start to finish, I guess. Eh, I'm a lazy descriptor. Don't mind the random notes I scribbled on this. It's a way to tell myself to keep drawing while in the process.

Next comes the lines, parsed through a Gmic filter to smoothen it...

... and comes the base colors + greyshade.

And then, the moment I have been waiting for to do! ALL THE FIRES! Starting with a gradient for a base background or something like that.

Suddenly, fires and destruction!

I tend to spend quite the amount of layers trying to achieve that, so here are the layers contained within the fireball (and the... fiery thing below it).

Now that the fireball's all but ready, time to do some light reflected on the guy.

Finish up with some more ambient light at the back to light up the scene further, and add some post-process filters for tweaks and we get back to the opening of the post. And that's it I guess.

Well, I just wanted to break my silence after a long time so yeah.

To cut it off with this post, I present to you something different: Even more explode-y stuff with parting words.

_{^{"It is human nature to seek culpability in a time of tragedy. It is a sign of strength to cry out against fate, rather than to bow one's head and succumb. Yet ultimately, it was I who set these events into motion, with a single blow from my hammer."}}