So i uploaded each save I made for a few of my more recent pieces. I can not emphasize enough how much I learned about the importance of thumbnails. For the first two I didn't use any thumbnails and You can see that I wasted a lot of time playing around with elements and composition.
For the space painting, the final result looks just like the result and I produced that one waaaay faster than the other. It was way less stressful also, seeing as I could focus on the painting aspect alone.
you can view the larger images and the final pieces here
http://hizi.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://hizi.deviantart.com/gallery/