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I thought I'd share this painting in my birth totem animal series from start to finish. The snake I used for reference is an eastern milksnake. I chose the milksnale, and the eastern variety in particular, because of the lovely skin pattern. Since painting snake is out of my comfort zone in many ways, I wanted to choose a snake that was both beautiful and colorful and non-poisonous. I've always loved the pattern of the coral snake, but that one is quite venomous. I found this little saying, "Red touches yellow, you're a dead fellow. Red touches black, you're okay, Jack."

Anyway, like I say, painting Snake is a challenge for me. It is not that I don't like snakes, but I've never been fascinated with them like I have with mammals and birds. But I like the symbolism of Snake, who comes into your life to help you with change. As Snake sheds her skin and is "reborn," so we can shed what is old and no longer working in our lives and be "reborn."

Session 1, a snake is "born." I was happy with the general drawing, colors and composition when I finished the first session. For those of you interested in "how long did that take?" this represents about 1-1/2 hours at the easel.