The hand off

A small white rabbit reaches out and touches the nose of a big brown Chinese dragon.
Media: Digital.

2024 is the year of the dragon, and as someone who’s always found zodiacs interesting I wanted to add an illustration for it. However, instead of just focusing on the dragon, I wanted to create something a little bit deeper. When one year, or one zodiac ends, it’s not a true ending, but more like a relay, a thought which inspired this illustraiton. With 2023 being the year of the rabbit it would be natural for there to be a rabbit tapping in the dragon to start its year. Of course, as these are animals, and with such a big size difference it seemed more natural for the hand off to be a gentle tap rather than an actual baton.

While imagery for the lunar new year feature a lot of reds, my colour choices were driven by the elements for the two zodiacs. You see, there are elements that rotate through the Chinese Zodiacs as well, meaning each year is a bit more unique. The year of the rabbit had water as its element, which is why the rabbit’s colours are white, with blue shadows. And with element for the year of the dragon in 2024 being wood, it was only natural to select browns and oranges for that character.