Flying on a brollie...

EDIT: In response to some of the comments about this after it became a DD, I'll add some info people have asked about.

The name Gemini is because the piece a concept for a callander that would have an illustration for each month inspired by the astrological sign associated with the month. I only did 3- Capricorn is on my website, but is far far inferior, and Leo is lost forever (it sucked too, so no great loss). Using starsigns for calanders is far from an original idea, so I didn't want it to be the obvious images for the sign, like twins or a lion or a goat. I tried to play off the characteristics associated with people of the signs and tried to think of people I knew and famous people with that sign (Natalie Portman, Fabiola DeSilva, Dominique van Roost come to mind, but I dodn't remember exactly). Gemini's are and air sign- thus the flying and clouds, and intelligent. I imagined her as kind of an explorer/student so I gave her books and a map and telescope. I'm sure I had some reasoning for other parts but I can't remember now.

As for influences, Miyazaki has been mentioned, and he is one of my two favorite artists. The other I don't think anyone mentioned is Arthur Rackham. They are both huge influences on me and I think it can me seen in this image especialy. In fact, the black and dark colored border is directly influenced by one of my favorite illustrations by Rackham of the Holy Grail.

One thing I wish I had done different is the rendering on the city below. I did this at a point were I wanted to do absolutley everything with a brush and thought of it as a cop out to us a pen. Now I'm more intersted in the oposite- using as many different tools as possible, so would render the city with a dip pen to give the linework a more solid look.

So thanks to all for the nice comments, and to OmniNashi and oedalis for making it a DD, it totally made my day.