I wanted to put it up here to show some process in how I create an illustration with composited pieces. This was done for Catholic Digest, something about community and cooperation.

I did elements of the composite separately, then scanned each one, then put them together in photoshop. I  put the background into photoshop first then placed the people and stars on top of it.

 
I usually don't do this sort of piecing together but this one seemed to need it. Most of the time my illustrations are simply a painting that then gets only slightly manipulated and retouched in photoshop. The advantage of doing a composite is all the pieces can be manipulated separately.