A while back, my cousin asked me if I would draw a set of zodiac signs for her candle company. I absolutely agreed because I love zodiac signs and thought it would be a cool opportunity and challenge.

I originally did three sets for each zodiac sign, but those that I’ll include below are the twelve images my cousin chose.

You might notice that these all appear to be done digitally. My process began with paper. I drew everything out in pencil, then lined them in ink. After that, I scanned the images and imported them digitally into Photoshop, where I then added color. I feel obligated to say – while digital painting is really cool, I 100% prefer drawing traditionally. It feels much more grounded to me.

Capricorn! Capricorn is a sea goat, which… Well, I don’t even know what a sea goat is, so I combined a goat head with tentacles. That sounded about right!

Aquarius! The water-bearer, though oddly enough, it’s an air sign, not water. This was one of my favorites – I was so happy when I came up with the idea of making her hair a giant wave.

I chose to represent Pisces as a mermaid-woman with a cool color scheme for her hair, with coral-shaped buns. Matching fish swim around her head, looking for food or safety in her coral buns.

I’m not sure this was the best color palette to ever exist, but alas… Bored woman sits atop a ram’s shoulders, both looking with pupil-less eyes at the viewer.

This was the first drawing I did for this zodiac series! I originally was going to have a bunch of miniature people sitting on top of their respective animals’ heads, but then I changed tune. I do like this one, but I don’t think it’s my favorite of the collection. I was proud of myself for the bull, though! He looks cool.

The twins – Gemini. They’re conjoined in my rendition. I really love this one – I was so proud that I was able to draw two heads in the same image without screwing them up too badly! Usually as soon as I try to add a second face in one drawing I immediately mess it up in a way that’s completely unfixable. I’ll have to work on that more haha.

This was one of my favorites, although I wish I had spent more time on the crab legs. They look hurried and unfinished, but that’s what happens when one is working quickly! I think I’ve learned to slow down a bit more when I need to. Right now I’m working on drawing a deck of cards and I’ve spent a pretty decent amount of time on them – and I’ve been very pleased with the results!

I was so pleased with the concept of this one, but not so much the execution. I think for some of these ideas, I just wasn’t advanced enough yet. To be honest, I still am not sure I am! I don’t draw animals very often, and fitting a human face inside of a lion’s roaring mouth is a hard reference picture to find!

The Virgin. A woman stands with a bouquet of wheat in her hands. When trying to find symbols and animals representative of Virgo, the only thing I really found was wheat! Why?! We need a better symbol, Virgo!

This is my least favorite. Again, this was a rushed idea and I’m not happy with how it came out. When I posted on social media, a lot of people really liked this one, though! I guess sometimes simpler is better.

Scorpio was probably my favorite to draw. I loved drawing the multiple legs, the ribs of the tail, and the casual yet sinister look on the model’s face. Scorpios get a bad rep sometimes, but I love them! After all, I almost was one.

Sagittarius! My very own zodiac sign. I decided to conjoin the model’s head with a horses, and have two arrows shot through both of their faces. Brutal, I know, but the arrow is a frequent symbol when representing Sagittarius.

All in all, I was quite happy with these zodiac signs! I think that was the last time I spent a lot of time painting digitally, so don’t get used to it, but I thought I would share anyway.

For more of my artwork, check out my last post or my instagram, which has nearly daily postings!