This image ran in the March 4 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle. It was for a review of Daniel Mason's "A Far Country," about a girl searching for her lost brother. Here is a link to the story online.
Further letting go, this piece used only two paths for the eye shapes. Everything else was "hand" painted using a layer mask, last vestige of control (other than undo). The background pattern is from a gravestone rubbing.
The view is through the girl's eyes as she searches for her lost brother. What we/she sees is a memory of him or how she imagined he left.
