Mizuchi

The fabled Japanese serpent/dragon said to inhabit rivers and lakes, either as a physical or elemental resident. I originally planned to make it completely prismatic and nebulous like an opal. But instead, I chose to make it bright pink-red like a certain sinewy chimerical seahorse I saw in a dream I had in July of 2003. But if you look closely, I did make the eyes and mouth interior opalescent. Giving it a serpent belly was proving too complicated, so I made it scaled all over like a fish instead. And the large feather-like tail tip is meant give a little reminiscence of a paintbrush, as a snake is said to represent creativity.

Just recently revised it, to visually associate it with a certain water organism, a floral one, i.e. a lotus flower. In fact, this particular mizuchi holds the lotuses residing in the same river it does very dear. Touching them disturbs it and picking or snapping a single one enrages it, prompting it to punishing the culprit by consumption so it can regenerate the flowers.

Once again, all done in After Effects.