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Description
"The locals on the outskirts of Thames County Forest know well enough not to go into the woods Hallowe'en Night. For that was the time when The Nightmare Man lurked.

There was a rift, a tear in the fabric of our reality, that seperated the Plane of the Conscious, and the Astral Plane, known to us as the Collective Unconscious. The reality of unconscious thought. From that rift poured the physical manifestations of our dreams. Both good, and bad.

There was a burial mound in the forest, when it once spread miles in every direction, back in the days before The White Man came with his ploughs and his guns.

Beneath that burial mound lay the body of a terrible man. Who he was, nobody is certain. When the fabric of our reality was torn, it tore within the mound, and a great many of the world's nightmares gathered into that one earthly vessel, twisting his form gruesomely, immortalizing the corpse and using him as a means of terrorizing and feeding upon the souls of the living.

However, it was said that during these ancient times, an old shaman performed a ritual at the foot of the burial mound. He willed the man made of nightmares to become chained to his mound for eternity. And so it was, the horror was bound to his tomb, his prison, deep beneath the soil and rocks of the burial mound.

The Shaman Planted a willow there, as a sacrificial offering to the man made of nightmares. The willow grew gnarled and menacing over the years. Its leaves, though living, look shriveled and brown on the branch. Its bark is brittle and cracked, and every whisper of wind sends painful groans murmuring through the night air.

The Shaman blessed the rest of the trees of that wood, so that they would lend strength to the seal on the horror's prison, while also confining the tear in reality to a small region.

Years had passed, and the forest's terrible secret passed out of common knowledge. But it was during the logging days of yesteryear when the Blessed Trees and the Horrible Willow of Thames County were cut down, and The Nightmare Man was freed from his prison. Only the descendant of the old shaman was able to bind him once again to the mound, but his power was only able to keep the new willow alive long enough to take root, before eventually succumbing to the power of The Nightmare Man, dying in the process. Though chained to the mound, not enough of the Blessed Trees were left un-felled, and their saplings had little of the ancient power of their elders.

It is only on a certain night when The Nightmare Man is able to break through the bondage of his prison. The night when the veil between the two realities is weakest, and the night when bad dreams reign supreme.

The locals on the outskirts of Thames County Forest know well enough not to go into the woods on Hallowe'en Night. For that was the time when The Nightmare Man lurked.

But he no longer lurks alone..."

_________________________________________________

This really didn't take me all that long to do, I just wanted to dick around with the whole idea of focus in digital art. It was all done on one layer, using various sizes of the airbrush setting in Corel Painter 11.

Altogether perhaps an hour and a half, not counting the time where I'd blankly stare at the monitor, desperate for a spurt of inspiration.

Description
"The locals on the outskirts of Thames County Forest know well enough not to go into the woods Hallowe'en Night. For that was the time when The Nightmare Man lurked.

There was a rift, a tear in the fabric of our reality, that seperated the Plane of the Conscious, and the Astral Plane, known to us as the Collective Unconscious. The reality of unconscious thought. From that rift poured the physical manifestations of our dreams. Both good, and bad.

There was a burial mound in the forest, when it once spread miles in every direction, back in the days before The White Man came with his ploughs and his guns.

Beneath that burial mound lay the body of a terrible man. Who he was, nobody is certain. When the fabric of our reality was torn, it tore within the mound, and a great many of the world's nightmares gathered into that one earthly vessel, twisting his form gruesomely, immortalizing the corpse and using him as a means of terrorizing and feeding upon the souls of the living.

However, it was said that during these ancient times, an old shaman performed a ritual at the foot of the burial mound. He willed the man made of nightmares to become chained to his mound for eternity. And so it was, the horror was bound to his tomb, his prison, deep beneath the soil and rocks of the burial mound.

The Shaman Planted a willow there, as a sacrificial offering to the man made of nightmares. The willow grew gnarled and menacing over the years. Its leaves, though living, look shriveled and brown on the branch. Its bark is brittle and cracked, and every whisper of wind sends painful groans murmuring through the night air.

The Shaman blessed the rest of the trees of that wood, so that they would lend strength to the seal on the horror's prison, while also confining the tear in reality to a small region.

Years had passed, and the forest's terrible secret passed out of common knowledge. But it was during the logging days of yesteryear when the Blessed Trees and the Horrible Willow of Thames County were cut down, and The Nightmare Man was freed from his prison. Only the descendant of the old shaman was able to bind him once again to the mound, but his power was only able to keep the new willow alive long enough to take root, before eventually succumbing to the power of The Nightmare Man, dying in the process. Though chained to the mound, not enough of the Blessed Trees were left un-felled, and their saplings had little of the ancient power of their elders.

It is only on a certain night when The Nightmare Man is able to break through the bondage of his prison. The night when the veil between the two realities is weakest, and the night when bad dreams reign supreme.

The locals on the outskirts of Thames County Forest know well enough not to go into the woods on Hallowe'en Night. For that was the time when The Nightmare Man lurked.

But he no longer lurks alone..."

_________________________________________________

This really didn't take me all that long to do, I just wanted to dick around with the whole idea of focus in digital art. It was all done on one layer, using various sizes of the airbrush setting in Corel Painter 11.

Altogether perhaps an hour and a half, not counting the time where I'd blankly stare at the monitor, desperate for a spurt of inspiration.