I did this render last month over a one week period as compared to taking 10 years to finish. So,progress. The image is comprised of two renders. The bottom part starting at the horizon down uses depth of field while from the horizon up uses no DOF. This allows the stars to be seen as sharp points when viewed but will go out of focus while one is viewing the character in the render. I tried to use a point light with inverse square attenuation but settled on a stack of five point lights with constant attenuation with an intensities of 45% to 25% and ranges of 2 units to 10 units in equal steps. I did this to get the feel of inverse square propagation while maintaining a better dynamic range between low and high light levels. The night sky is a planet model that used cylindrical mapping. I inverted the model's faces so that it could be seen from the inside and changed the texture with a cylindrical projection of the night sky provided by NASA. Because this is art and not reality, I deselected the cast shadows option on the lantern. I used a primitive hidden in the lanterns top to cast a shadow onto the hand of the character to imply that a shadow is being cast by the lantern when its not. I did some post work in paint shop pro to composite the two renders and to lighten shadows on the face around the upper lip and right eye. Hope you enjoy.