Literature Dragon

I have Vietnam on the brain, since my wife and I are in the process of adopting a Vietnamese baby. I started some light research into Vietnamese folklore and found an image of the Literature Dragon from the Ly Dynasty. And, after years of masking textures in Photoshop, I learned a new masking technique that allows you to draw or paint the mask on paper, scan it in, and retain the subtleties of the grays in the mask. That's how I did this one. I love being able to blend the digital and handcrafted like that. It feels like printmaking without the mess. Click to enlarge.