Snowy Landscape Process + PSD

Looks like you have to click this one to see the animated process.

PSD and other Files:
http://www.divshare.com/download/106503-828

MikeCorriero asked me a few questions I'll try and answer them as well as I can;
The brush I used 99% of the time in this was a default round; size, opacity and flow set to pressure. I almost never use the manual opacity and for this particular style I found it best to use 100% flow as I didn't really have to 'blend' much. After the initial sketch I used an abstract brush with many hard edges to sort of lay down a base coat of the primary color I had envisioned for this painting. Directly afterward I used a soft light layer and the same brush to create even more variety in color, overtop of which I also use an overlay layer with the same method. Here I was establishing the general palette I used for the next several rendering steps. It can also be great to use the clone brush with these methods as it adds another layer of grit, grime and variance. Now, next came something I've really been enjoying lately something I saw Andrew Jones demonstrate at the recent San Franciso workshop. Duplicate your layers, or hit ctrl+alt+e. Flip this duplicate canvas, set it to either lighten or darken and experiment with it's position on the canvas, you may also want to enlarge your canvas by 200% in each direction. I think you'll find that some things work quite well symmetrically and others work best if you stretch and distort the canvas. Overall I really enjoy this technique - it's helped me see many possibilites that I would otherwise never see. I think it's also a great tool for conceptualizing. Moving on I used a 'dirt' brush, very low impact with essentially small bristles to add even more grit to the canvas. Afterwhich came one of the most drastic changes done with the editing modes; curves, color balance and selective color. If you have Adobe CS or above you will be able to click on these adjustment layers to view them in more detail. These are very handy tools if you've changed your mind about what colors/values you want as well as changing mood etc. Even if I haven't changed what I have in mind, I will still experiment with these and most often find something that I think works even better. The next steps are just more rendering and in the final just a unsharp mask to help visibility for web as well as tweak some edges.
Thanks for listening to me ramble ;)