This started out years ago as a sketch of the bird guy wearing goggles, with his hand grasping something not drawn yet. Originally I was going for a steampunk feel, hence the goggles, but when I decided to fill in a background and add color, I didn't have my ruler and compass with me. and uneven, wobbly gears are a pet peeve. So instead of holding some kind of mechanical object, I stuck a crystal in his hand (If nothing else, he's kind of a brown crow, so hey SHINY THING makes sense), and pushed the background towards the mystical, but still with no clear idea of what's going on in there.
Someone later said that between the bird guy and the purple crystal, it looks like something from the world of The Dark Crystal, before the movie, with younger skeksis. Ideally I'd like to revisit this one sometime, but with as often as I do art at all, I know it's not likely.

sepia ink and watercolor pencil on (nominally) hot-press watercolor paper (seems a bit rougher than hot-press should be). 5x7 inches