Winter Solstice

"Winter Solstice greetings!!"

Everypony's favorite pony for everypony's favorite holiday. I had hoped to get this uploaded in time for Friday evening's festivities, but a power outage (!) forced work on the background to move forward a day or so. I'm sure you'll welcome Luna into your home, late for her holiday or not. :3

I'm very pleased with the backdrop here. Rendering the tree realistically was quite a challenge, as was the feinting couch's wood grain, but my favorite bit here is the view of the snowy mountains out the window. I really needed the landscape to feel cold to accentuate the warm colors of the rest of the image - and of course, the falling snowflakes outside match the stars in Luna's mane. It was also fun to experiment with the glow of the Hearth's Warming tree on Luna's face and neck. It's subtle but I think it adds to the scene.

Truthfully, in terms of balancing color, composition, and detail, I think this is my best work yet. So Happy Hearth's Warming to one and all!