it was a technical nightmare for me, spent way too many days on it. anyway - no direct reference used except for the birds. i don't know what kind of birds are these to be frank, i just googled "little flying birds" (seriously) and tried to paint something similar. i have to say i'm quite proud of many elements in this piece and i hope you'll like it too..

i hope it doesn't look weird. on my monitor it looks ok, but i checked it on other ones and it looked too bright and without enough contrast.. oh well. new monitor, new problems.

done in painter 7 + photoshop 7 for some additional textures on a pencil sketch as usual. heavily repainted in 2008.

close up's: http://ic1.deviantart.com/fs15/f/2007/072/b/1/unspoken___close_up__s_by_vinegar.jpg