Chapter 1 | THE TAIL EATER

The tail eater is a snake that bites its own tail. A tail eater (Ouroboros) is one of the oldest mythical symbols in the world and means that time is endless. After all the snake can never eat itself completely and thus continues to form an eternal circle. In this lesson we decorate the tail eater with a structure.

                                                       Giant chicken.

Exercise 1: Draw one of these two structures of scales or feathers. The motif that makes up the structure is next to the square. I started on the right side of both, but you can of course just as easily start drawing from the left, above or below.

Exercise 2: Try out some of the following structures or make up your own surface structures. Next to each square you find the basic motif with which it is made. It’s nice to fill the area as much as possible, also at the edges. Only with one of them I started in the middle and didn’t draw a square around it.

Exercise 3: Try to decorate a tail eater with surface structures. A tail eater is very suitable for trying out structures because the skin of the snake in a drawing is not such a big area to fill. From head to tail you may want to try out different structures in black and white or color. You can use my examples as well as make up your own surface structures. Make sure that the tail really disappears into the snake’s mouth.