It might not be most original concept but I am somewhat intrigued to illustrate concept, sayings or ideas.
The idea I had before creating this was autumn to be a person guarding the passage from summer to winter. For myself autumn can be both - very playful (thinking of the leaves I used to kick around as a child) and depressing. Those are the things I wanted to include in this picture.
I started with a rough pencil sketch and then colored it in Photoshop 7. The (very messy) process can be seen on my website.
This was also the first piece I worked at in print resolution.