The starting point for this was Jack London's short story 'To Build a Fire' in which a man and his dog travel through dangerously cold conditions, and the character's inexperience and foolishness eventually leads to his death.
The part of the story that really captured my attention was the moment where the character realises that death is near, and this is what I chose to illustrate here. Although not a direct interpretation of the text, I wanted to convey the sense of terror and sorrow experienced in the moments before death.
EDIT 20/01/13: I decided to revise the image a little bit, particularly the form of the tree and some minor tweaks to the colour

This excellent artwork is featured in my journal. [link]