This scene is based on the works of Marcelo Mosqueira. The original image fascinated me so I tried to be as accurate to its spirit as possible. Modeling was done from camera view with adjustments to fix perspective distortions.
I adopted a pretty methodical workflow, doing first a full pass of bump-mapping, then alpha, then colour pass and finally a specularity pass when needed to highlight details. I painted all textures in Blender over the 3D model which turned out to be really pleasant and straightforward.
Background is a quick matte painting I painted in Gimp and then composited in Blender. The final image has a slight paint-over on the beard and eyebrows to give the required smoothness. Done in Blender 2.5, rendered in Blender Internal.
Here the original picture:
