As I attempt to finish my book in a timely manner, I keep telling myself to make pieces that are striking but simple, so I can keep things moving along quickly. Instead, I keep making paintings that have a million tiny rocks in them.
Seriously though, the real challenge to this piece was establishing and maintaining a sense of scale. Doing that is a combination of detail and relativity. All the tiny rocks and bits of snow help make the mountain seem large, but the foreground is actually doing a lot of the work. By establishing a low angle for the camera and showing the ground receding quickly into the distance, I'm able to push the main figure farther away and reinforce its scale.