I did a complete overhaul of the piece I posted yesterday (but which deleted after 5 minutes or so). There were a few things wrong with it. I hated having to pretty much redo everything. But FollowMal asked me: is River worth it? To that question there can only ever be one answer: YES! :) And I'm glad I did. But I think the work improved a lot. As a result, I'm now officially without sleep for over 34 hours. So, I lack the energy to put to much time into not sounding too happy with it. So, you'll forgive me my elate mood, okay? :)

The following items were fixed and/or redressed:

1): Removed the Trash "I can kill you with my brain" picture; it looked good, but, indeed, didn't really fit the theme.

2): I used a much more professional "page curl" plug-in to 'open up reality' -- one that would allow me to render a true flip-side pattern (instead of just adding it later with a brush).

3): I moved the whole 'vortex' to the left a bit; this way River on the couch is not getting warped by the page curl effect (she's warped enough as it is, right?).

4): I cleaned up the River-in-Alliance-chair. I removed obtrusive shadows; and I increased the visible area.

5): I redid/repositioned the main text fonts. Too many filters had caused their legibility to suffer.

6): I used a much better pattern for the 'flip-side' of reality; the whole blue tiles thingy gives that wall exactly the sort of clinic feel as I looking for.

7): Artistically, it occurred to me that I could, and should, use the flip-side wall of reality (inspired by the way M.C. Escher uses both 'sides' of a stairs, in "Relativity"). By cleverly positioning the right-hand curl (angle, alignment, and distance-to-chair wise), I now kinda created the illusion as if the entire Alliance-chair is set against that wall. Especially River's left arm (her left, of the River in chair) now seems to rest comfortably on the tile wall. I'm really pleased with this effect. It's weird: just a few coordinate changes; and yet I think dramatically increases the overall artistic value.

P.S. Totally unintended, lol, but the area around the two buttons in the couch (at each side of the split) makes those buttons like a face with eyes, and a nose in between. I stopped short of painting a smiley underneath. :)

Wow. Asarian, you are a very thoughtful River lover indeed.

I like this version even more than the last. Very shiny. I might be imagining this, but did you move the image of her on the couch a bit to the right? I like it. It gives you a much clearer view of River's head, whereas before I think that the "scene splitting" thing obstructed it just a bit. Really, nice work. Can't wait to see what you have next.

interesting i like it

but i liked i can kill you with my brain /tear

ah quite nice. good color tweaking, too it looks like: bringing out the contrast in her read sweater against the blues.

again, I also like how you're incorporating the special effects into the composition. here, with resting River's arm on the 'page-curl.'

Wow!
I think the word 'intense' describes this in a nutshell. The tear, the over-bright colours, the theme and the execution. It's all very intense.
Very well done.

Wow. REALLY good, CH is right, it's very intense.

Totally shiny! This was definately worth the effort.
Your love of River really comes through in your attention to detail.
You're talented and you really take time to think about what you're doing and that makes for high quality indeed.

seems you spend alot of time on these things. its a good job, for sure. i like it. but it seems it shouldn't have taken s long as you make it out to be. but it's still awesome

Interesting idea. It really does show part of River's dilemma. I like the idea, well done.

It might be a little easier to view and load faster if the pic were scaled down just a bit. The whole pic doesn't quite fit into the screen and you have to scroll (and I have a wide screen monitor too). So it sort of takes away from the well crafted intesity of your picture if you can't see it all in one shot. Unless this is a wallpaper?

Ah, Asarian, look at what you've done!
It's an amazing piece! I'm so glad you did it again, and so glad you shared it with us!

I can't wait to see what you do next. :)

I give it a 10, cuz it's that gorramn good!

My darling you are amazing, this is amazing.

Nice job Asarian

As always - very nice art work.

switch the texure of the to her mind should be the fuzzy one cause well the mind is a rutn confusing place and twist you around for all means of time