The Gregorian calendar year commenced 1 January 2024. The Lunar/Chinese New Year commenced 10 February 2024. In the past I have done separate artworks for both events. This time I decided to use one base concept to create both artworks. As this is the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Dragon, I chose to depict a baby dragon emerging from its egg. So at the end of December 2023, I created both artworks. Published the 2024 one for the 1 Jan 2024 date and published the Chinese New Year one on 9 Jan 2024.
No. 1-This is the base line artwork drawn by hand, ink on paper, scanned into Photoshop.
No. 2-The base artwork was coloured as above in Photoshop and saved.
No. 3- From that base artwork, this one was further developed in Photoshop as final artwork for the Gregorian New Year and published first.
No. 4- Going back to the saved base artwork (No. 2), this one was further developed in Photoshop as final artwork for the Chinese New Year and published for that event. Auspicious red colour background, orange sparkles and Chinese motif border.
Both No. 3 and No. 4 were completed at the same time, only publication was staggered.
As a side note, our first born was born in a dragon year too, so it has a special meaning for us.
