Complicated Macmillan Spread

I thought I'd post another of my macmillan spreads, which again has taken a considerable amount of time.  This spread amazingly consists of over 100 layers in Photoshop and that's excluding the shells!  Watercolour, acrylics, pen and photographs of plasters have all made up this double page spread.  The little snails have jumped out of a tree to escape a mean hedgehog and have ended up a bit battered and bruised.  Poor snails.

I sometimes wonder about this way of working and how I always seem to end of with bits and pieces of painted artwork, snails without bodies and separate penwork, or backgrounds that really don't mean anything to anyone except me. Then I think of the flexibility that this way of working gives me. I can move things about on the screen, change, add or take away different elements, and try out so many different layer effects in Photoshop to achieve my final piece. I think it is worth the hours of selecting and masking and sometimes stumbling upon unexpected results.