From the Ashes...Rise Anew

"From the ashes of death you shall rises anew, and let your new wings carry you forward to the next dawn."

In classic mythology the Phoenix lived for 500-600 years before dying in a funeral pyre and being reborn as a youthful bird so it can continue the cycle. Some mythologies have the phoenix leave behind an egg among the ashes and the burning body incubates the egg until it hatches.
The Phoenix has often symbolized immortality or rebirth, and to me it symbolizes that nothing last forever, both good and bad things.

This is my first picture done with my new sexy Intuos 4 tablet, I have been practicing a lot since I got it...but I've only scratch the surface XD
This particular piece went through...5 different renditions before stopping at this one, and trust me no one would have been impressed with the first attempts XD. I have not used a tablet in years (and it was only for one day) so I am very pleased with how quickly I've started picking it up, I know it's not perfect but it isn't meant to be, this is merely the first step in my future artworks ^^

For this piece alone I spent probably 5 hrs in Photoshop 7
Total time spent on all renditions which allowed me to do this pic...probably 12-15 hrs in Photoshop.