The sun is rising on the owl village. It's harvest time so there's much to do and owls are busy even a bit into the daylight hours. Tristan is carrying bonk coals he harvested from a wildfire over night. He's bringing them back to the forge (you can see the smoke coming from one of the trees in the village below). To the left are cliff tunnels where raw materials for metals are mined. To the east of the river, crops are carefully tended. These will feed the owl's captive stocks of rodents that sustain them through the winter. There's a watermill in the center, powered by water leaving the lake. It is here that wood is cut and grains milled into fine flour for making bread for trade. There's a lookout post on the rocks above the village and many of the large trees have hollows that have been built out for gatherings and commerce.

This was a commission for  tristantheowl. He draws his inspiration from the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, but takes it a bit farther in time, figuring that eventually owls would build, mine, even grow crops. This was a very challenging piece and I can't say I'm completely satisfied. The big problem was the angle-- not easy with the angles that vary as you move out from the center.

Completed 11/24/2015