Got something big done and needed a mental break. I've also been really, really art deprived, so I opened a file I started in 2012 and decided to pick at it some more and this is the result. It's a concept I've been wanting to do, but just couldn't execute it how I wanted so I gave up on it years ago. Thank you SO much and for your patience and truly invaluable advice, critique, and help with techniques on this. Also thank you Hanmonster for the fire technique, which Nym showed me and I know she'd want you to have credit for passing on.

I can't say I'm 100% satisfied with my own execution on the fire, but I'm done picking at this for now. It would be nice to have the time to start something new and get a couple pieces I owe finished, but here's this for now.

As for the crow itself, the flames only show up when it's in flight. When it's perched or walking, it just smolders underneath it's black feathers. (Think of cooling lava or a camp fire that has burned down to coals.) There are a couple of legends about this crow. Some believe it is a cruel spirit that starts wild fires and feeds off the destruction. Others think of it more as a benevolent spirit that warns about the approaching flames and stewards the lost souls of the burned to the "other side", representing a necessary and natural cycles of destruction and renewal in nature. And yet others take a more neutral approach and recognize fires as the bird's habitat and a part of it's natural lifecycle. Whatever the real story behind the Ember Crow is, everyone agrees that it's only seen in areas ravaged, or being ravaged by fire. Is it born of the flames? Or is it the cause? More research needs to be done, but doing so is extremely dangerous.