I told you there were more reptiles coming. ;) The alligator in this one started out as a small pencil sketch. After I'd painted it in Photoshop, I created the eggs (using the ellipse tool and the radial gradient tool). The most difficult part was deciding on a background. The dry grass effect was the result of much trial and error. It began as a single layer of random lines. I made several duplicates of that layer, moving it slightly each time so that the lower layers would show through. Then I lightened some of the layers and darkened some of them to create contrast. I was pretty pleased with how well it worked. The scaling effect on the alligator, by the way, was achieved by copying and pasting the alligator onto itself, applying the Stained Glass filter to the top copy, then decreasing the opacity so that it was just barely visible over the top of the original.