Kaa: part 1

My sister in law, TT, has a pet ball snake python (snake python? a little redundant, the naming committee was out the day the snake's name was picked). When I told TT that I wanted to start a pet portrait company, she laughed at me and said something about how people who want paintings of their pets are idiots, or stupid, or weird, or something along those lines.... (sigh) awesome. So what I am going to do? Make a kick ass painting of her snake, that she can't have. :) Yep, I am both petty and vindictive.

Also a little note on animal care. TT's snake lives out its life in a little fish tank. Super small. I know a girl from school who has three snakes, I believe, and one day she was telling me about the care of snakes. Just about everything TT does for her snake is wrong. Oops. Girl from school has a huge, more like an inclosure than a cage for her snakes that sounds awesome. If I had the money/wasn't nervous around snakes I would totally get a huger six foot tall gig for a snake. It would be snake paradise with real plants and maybe frogs and climate controlled and it would look so cool in the living room. I understand that TT may not want to send that money on her snake or prominently feature her snake, but I feel that if you are going to be a responsible pet owner, you have to.

Take my mom for example, she hates spending money on the family cat(s) (we are down to one, but when we had three she was the same). When something is wrong with the cat, who is the one to take care of it? Me. Almost always.

Another example, my step sister. She has a dog who, when step sister was struggling with getting pregnant, was step sister's baby. The dog was fully featured in many Christmas photo cards. Now that kids are around? Puppy lives out it's life in the garage.

Here is the thing, TT, mom, step sister, they just don't really get it. Animals aren't there when it is convenient, they are there to be a part of your life. Not a fixture. Their food is important, their environment is important, etc etc blah blah. Like how really everyone should just be feeding their cats raw meat.

Sorry...on to the snake!

Snake, I am naming Kaa, after about three hours (including drawing time):

The background will be dark, like the lilly painting, and not stripped. The snake, on the other hand, will be. I put the lines in the background for the time being to help me see the divisions. Hopefully this will turn out.