WIP New Native Steampunk

Alright, been a few weeks since I last posted, but for now I'm putting my last Native Steampunk on hold and started another one. Since I don't have a scanner, usually I start off with a preliminary messy sketch of the outlines (which I erased, but I'll try to remember to save it and show it next time) and then I have a a more detailed sketch.

Now, one thing I have to say is that I'm really bad when it comes to backgrounds. I tend to do portraits or figurative work, so I end up concentrating on the person that I'm drawing and leave the background as an afterthought, and it shows. This time though, I really tried to incorporate the person in a scene, and painting the scene first instead of painting the person first, and it's making a big difference. It adds a lot of narrative that's been lacking in a lot of my other pictures, and makes the whole work more interesting. I think if I go back to the other Native Steampunk I was making, I might try to incorporate a scene around the person as well.
Since I haven't been posting much of my progress (bad me) I've already done a lot of work in terms of painting. One of the most difficult parts of the picture so far has been the astrolabe, especially since I don't know much about astrolabes.