will-o'-the-wisp

Had so much fun painting this! Thanks everyone who were watching me paint in Livestream today and all!

Anyways! At first this was coing to be totally random art about a tiger. I had tiger refs and pictures in front of me but when I started sketching I got an idea of a male sphinx! I have never seen one painted before and wanted to paint one. so I started. After few hours of painting I got an idea from my friend that I could draw little flame inside that lantern. It became a little will-o'-the-wisp!
Now there is random ninja samurai male sphinx guarding his dear will-o'-the-wisp. This couple makes an awsome character and I may even draw them more. :3

Photoshop CS3 and Wacom intuos 4
it took 9 hours in total to paint. all done in one layer
All (c)