Apropos of the holiday and contest, I thought horror, death, care, and concern in the same image might sharpen the contrasts between them and make for an interesting scene.

I used Daz Studio 4.9 Pro Edition and for the pre and intra-production work (integrating wounds, scars, and claw marks into the skin textures), Photoshop CC 7.

Except for placing a border, no other post-production work involved. Image is 100% Iray and rendered in one pass.

The project took 3 1/2 days of non-continuous work (about 20 hours total) and the most challenging aspect, as always for me, involved how to illuminate an obvious night scene.