JamesOne’s Zodiac Sketches

Hey, guys! Just wanna share my 2-hr sketches on the Eastern Zodiac animals. I'll crank one per day or two days. This is my first time creating a personal topic, feel free to throw in some feedbacks! 😬

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First one I did for this sketch series: Cat! In Vietnamese culture, we use Cat as the fourth guardian instead of Rabbit in Chinese culture. Admittedly, cat is much cooler, no? FYI, The model for this piece is actually my cat, and studying him has always been a pleasure.

The second one in the series: Pig! The popular opinion is that pigs are dumb and they are totally not. In fact, they are ranked one of the smartest animals on Earth (top 7), beating cats and dogs! In this piece, I want to convey the pig being a malevolent medieval knight and a schemer. What you guys think?

The third sketch: Water Buffalo! Real dedicated, this one! I want this Zodiac guardian to stick to his Asian heritage, so I did some research on ancient Chinese royal garment. Bada-bing, bada-boom! Now we have an 18th Century Emporor!

Here is the Fourth Guardian: Dragon! Within the circle of the Zodiac, dragon is the only imaginary, man-made creature. Hence, I put a customized crocodile helmet, with pair of antlers, that ressembles a dragon, onto this girl warrior. My thinking process here is that our imagination is the very exaggerated ressemblance of our thought,

The fifth one in the series: Mouse! She is a Victorian-era princess. Despite her size, the robot she is on is quite a fighter. Also, I attempt to make her stare evil and scheming.

The Sixth guardian of the Eastern Zodiac sketch series that I did: Tiger!
I was thinking religion, then Christian, Catholic, nuns, priests, pope, etc. out of nowhere, and decided that this very Asian Tiger will be some pope. And he has a visitor to entertain...

Thanks a lot, man! I'm glad you like them.

My seventh sketch for the Zodiac Guardian series is here: Snake!

This one is a dragon snake, one of the most badass species of snake I've ever seen. There are actually a bunch of variations of this type of beast, but I picked this Indonesian one. At the same time, I was looking into some Indonesian indigenous tribes and decided to add some tribal props onto the snake.

Evidently, I did this one super-quickly and roughly. Some may think I'm an idiot for picking such a complicated breed of creature to paint fast. Personally, a challenge a day keeps the doctor away! And my mission for this sketch is to figure out the fastest way to render the scale as possible.

Anyway, thanks for being patient with me doing this sketch journal!