Here's the final* version of the planetside scene of McKay, Sheppard, and a bunch of possibly snake-worshipping aliens. Now with background. (background sketch
here)
*Okay, when I say 'final' I still see a dozen details I could tinker with, but you gotta find an end at one point. Maybedefinitely later I'll fix a few more things.
I ended up painting both fore- and background in traditional media and then putting them together in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro (... switched to PSP as soon as essential changes were done, because that program is about a million times faster.)