With your ability to paint light, this is going to look amazing. I can see why your friend wanted a phoenix from you, it really seems right up your alley. I'm glad you were able to find an aspect of the phoenix's story that interests you. Sometimes a subject just doesn't do it for you, that's fair. I can see how one might think it's become overdone and/or trite for an artist - sort of like dolphins for me :X.
As for gender, I'm going off the top of my head here, but in Chinese culture the dragon and the phoenix together are like yin and yang, with the phoenix representing the female aspect.
Phoenix WIP
A friend of mine really wants a picture of a phoenix, possibly to make a tattoo... I really hate phoenixes. I think it's the usual image of either a bird on fire, or a happy glamour bird without a care in the world.
The one thing that intrigues me about the phoenix myth is what does it think when it (he/she?) builds the pyre or nest at the end of its life-cycle. On a desolate mountain side the phoenix builds something that is just going to go up in flames anyway; but as futile as the efforts might seem on the surface, it is part of a cycle of life far more enduring than momentary circumstance.
The nest/pyre will be made out of living branches to symbolize the promise of life. The light striking the side of the mountains and most of the phoenix is exactly the color of hope -- at least how it exists in my mind.
I'm also experimenting with watermarks, so pardon my big name!
