We had just moved away from Virginia Beach up to Maryland, and I was finally pursuing art full-time. Most of my work was still freelance illustration, and I think you can see some of that influence in this painting; a little bit fantasy, with a combination of reference pictures into one completed piece.
 
I painted it for the free gallery show at the local city hall, and it was rejected as not fitting the theme of "Earth Elements". I'll let you be the judge ;)
 
This is also one of the last oil paintings I did for personal work, as I really fell in love with watercolor with the next pieces. You can see I even snuck in a few more watercolor-esque techniques with thinning the oils and splattering paint in the background!

This oil painting is 16x20", unframed