Fairy Ouroboros

Ever since the Ouroboros commission I finished, oh, a good while ago, i've been itching to knock out a couple of my own designs for this arcane symbol.  I have an absolute fascination with alchemical imagery and their meanings.  The Ouroboros exists in various cultures from around the world and has a variety of different meanings, but most tend to agree that the serpent devouring its own tail symbolises the life cycle; death and rebirth, the eternal nature of things.
There's lots of room to play around with this image; i'm hoping to get a second (and much larger) one done, and i'll be digging out the old gold leaf for that one.
So I won't expect it to be done in a hurry.

Anyhoo i'll leave you with the finished piece and also a few progress shots, taken at random intervals to hopefully try and show my particular working habits.
Which, quite frankly, are obscure and unstructured, as I tend to leap about a piece blindly with only a vague idea of where i'm heading.(Even the rare occasions when I do know what I want it to be, it tends to disregard my wishes, turning out just as it pleases.  I swear it's the brush controlling me, not the other way round..)