X3 I started with just the flat colors on the brothers and no background, then about twelve hours later, finished product! Although I forgot to shine up the tops of Caleb's sleeves, so I might go back to fix that later today.
All the shading was done using a dark green on a layer and playing with filters and highlights were a light blue on another layer, also filter playing, the shadows were gradients and I grabbed new brushes to help me do the windows on the 'buildings' and the trees. The Holy World symbol was an imported vector I had done about a month back, resized (i love how vectors don't lose their clarity) and then put through a vertical grain to make it look like colored metal and embossed to really make it stand out.
I could go on all day about all the little things I did to get that background to work with me, but I dun wanna start rambling. XD though I think I already rambled quite a bit.