Great work RobertT. I really like the rich color you used and the lighting works really well with it. Mind sharing what you did for the texture?
Thank you all for the replies!
The textures are a mix of procedural and my own custom textures. Nodes were used to intensify the colors and shadows.
For illumination I used a non-raytracing area lamp as the primary source of light. No ambient occlusion was used; instead, I used a negative sun lamp pointing up to accentuate shadowy areas.
I’m glad that, in addition to the technical aspects and artistic decisions, that some of the concepts in this piece were touched upon in this thread. Above all, I enjoy hearing the ideas discussed and interpreted, so many thanks for that!
Special thanks to gunnarstahl who continues to amaze me with such excellent insight.
RobertT