Angha/Simurgh

Part of an art challenge going on right now at alphabeastiary, for anyone who wants to check it out. I was curious to see if my art was up to snuff for their standards, so I asked and they told me to send in my art of the first creature for them to judge by, since they weren't sure. This took the better part of my afternoon and I'm not even sure it will make it in, but it will still look nice in the collection.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the angha, or simurgh, it is a mythological animal from Persia that roosts in the Tree of Life and is large enough to eat elephants or whales. It's supposed to be a dog with peacock wings and tail as well as lion's claws. Some of the stuff I read for it on wikipedia noted that a variant on the myth claims that the simurgh had copper feathers, hence my choice of orange (I hope it doesn't look too skewed on bright, warm-toned screens :\ )

Done in Gimp with the good old tablet, and ohhh my poor hand.