Dragon or Snake?

Soon it’s going to be my birthday!  24 January it is.  Born in 1965, the Year of the Snake.  That is, according to the Western calendar, Japan as well, in which the New Year starts on 1 January However, the Chinese Lunar calendar dictates that Snake Year didn’t kick in until 2 February 1965 the start of the Chinese New Year!  That would make me a Dragon instead, the year preceding the Snake.  So which one am I?  Dragon or Snake?  Well, I enjoy having the best of both worlds!  Both are strong ferocious animals, which certainly reflects my character haha.  And now, let’s paint about it!

The Process

On a two-page spread of my Strathmore A4 Mixed Media sketchbook, first a pencil sketch followed by outlining the text with markers (Faber Castell’s Pitt Artists pen for black and Molotow acrylic pen for red).  How cute does Little One look dressed as a Dragon and a Snake!  The hair and face were then colored in with Caran d’ache Neocolor II water soluble oil pastels. Then I painted the background with Harmonia’s granulating water colors in Purple Spinal, known for its use of different color pigments for that “uneven mottled wash.”. And you really see that here, how pretty is that!  The outfits were then filled in with a mixture of Pale Gold Acryla and Aqyla Pearl Gold gouaches.  Wow so far so gorgeous!

Adding Detail

The eyes were colored in with Faber Castell’s Pitt Artists Pen along with a Uni Posca marker form the white areas.  And now a bit of bling!   Bronze Stickles glitter glue for the eye lashes along with Gold Sticlkes glitter gel scattered about the gold outfits.  Tapped a bit of Daler & Rowney’s Shimmering Green acrylic ink on the white area of the dragon’s outfit and also the captions. Finishing touch is tracing over the heading with Marabu’s red glitter pen.  Et voilà!

I am so happy I was able to paint this!  Considering how unusual it is to fall under both animal zodiacs, it was worth illustrating it especially in a kawaii style.  Little One was so honored to be featured in this theme too!  By the way the Chinese/Japanese character for dragon is 龍 and for snake is 蛇 as seen in the painting.  Anyone else out there falling in the same situation as me due to cultural differences?

And here is a closer look of each page: