Day 27 - Rattlesnake

Day 27 – Rattlesnake (Jack Van Cleaf & Zach Bryan)

After wrapping up my Draw Down the Moon illustration series, I’m back to drawing in my own style. That project taught me a lot about composition, color blocking, and mid-century modern aesthetics—things I’ll definitely be carrying forward in my work. But for this piece, I leaned into something different: a mix of a classic tattoo aesthetic and a risograph print feel.

For Rattlesnake, I focused on the line:
“Love is like a rattlesnake, before it bites it tries to warn ya.”

There’s something about that lyric that feels so raw and poetic. Love, like a rattlesnake, can be intense, unpredictable, and sometimes dangerous—but it doesn’t strike without warning. That imagery immediately came to mind, and I knew I wanted to build the illustration around it.

Process & Style

I started with a bold, graphic composition: a rattlesnake wrapped around an anatomical heart, its body forming a loop while a banner weaves through, delivering the lyric. This kind of imagery has roots in traditional tattoo art, where strong lines, minimal shading, and symbolic elements tell a story.

To push the aesthetic further, I incorporated a risograph-inspired texture and color palette. I used Retro Supply Co.'s riso brushes and textures, layering red, blue, and yellow in varying opacities to mimic the imperfect ink overlaps of real risograph prints. This technique gives the piece a printed, slightly worn look—almost like an old-school gig poster or a vintage tattoo flash sheet.

For extra depth, I leaned into rough paper textures, grain, and slight misalignment in the colors. It’s subtle, but those imperfections add to the overall feel, making the illustration look less digital and more like something you’d find printed on aged paper.

Thoughts on the Song

There’s a certain recklessness and raw energy in Rattlesnake that I love. The lyrics are filled with self-awareness and contradiction—freedom vs. regret, motion vs. stagnation, love vs. self-destruction. The imagery of stumbling through different states, questioning morality, and wrestling with choices all resonated with me. That contrast—between recklessness and deep introspection—is something I wanted to reflect in the artwork.

The rattlesnake itself is a perfect metaphor. It warns before it strikes. It carries both danger and wisdom. The way it coils around the heart in this piece is meant to feel both protective and threatening, just like love can be.

Final Thoughts

This one was a blast to work on. It felt like a return to my natural style, but with some new influences from the Draw Down the Moon series. Mixing traditional tattoo aesthetics with riso textures felt like the perfect match for the song’s raw, vintage, and slightly chaotic energy.

Let me know what you think!