Digital illustration | Murder of crows

Hello everyone!
For today, I am sharing with you another illustration I made on Procreate.
I did struggle a little bit with this painting, as the definitive composition came to me a bit later than usual. That's why in the progress pictures, you can see me start with only a half body. I decided to draw the rest of the body after I had been working on the painting for quite some time. But I really like how it turned out in the end.

The woman, a priestess, is sitting cross-legged and wearing a veil as well as a gold headpiece. She is praying and crows are flying around her. The concept is very loosely based on religious traditions from ancient Greece and Rome, and more specifically divination methods used by the priests to predict the future and interact with the gods.

In many ancient cultures, omens came from animals entrails and were considered an indication of the gods' approval or disapproval. This practice was called Hepatomancy. A less brutal technique of divination, and the one I tried to showcase in my illustration, was called Ornithomancy or Auguri. It was based on the interpretation of birds behaviors such as flight patterns, numbers, and type. Crows, in particular, held a very important place in these cultures.

Because there was already a lot of details/patterns on the robe of the priestess, I chose to draw the birds in negative space so that they still stood out.
To complete the painting, I also added olive branches behind her as some reminder of Mediterranean landscape, and the usual gold disk.

Hope you enjoy, and thanks for viewing :)

Progress pictures:

Starting with the face, and using this lovely portrait as reference for the face and headpiece.

Adding the veil, and changing the hairstyle to a low bun, and then just long wavy hair. Also adding olive branch behind her, and patterns to her outfit.

Starting to add colors. But still not feeling entirely satisfied about the composition.

Decided to try to draw her full body, and ended up liking it a lot more.