Okay, so to address a few things.
One, you're really not going to appreciate the shirt if you hate cute animals AND don't know what the Chinese zodiac is. I accept that. Sorry for you guys.
Two, I agonized over what style to make this design. A lot of you think that drawing this cute animal style is easier than doing it in a more artistic style, but it's not. It's easier for me to do the animals in an artistic style because the coloring is much easier (since the drawing stands more on its own when you're limited to 6 colors) - for example, tgentry's Sun Wu Kong shirt was artistic and just one color. Can you imagine how dumb cute animals would look colored like that?
Anyway, my point is that I wanted to do a cute animal side design, but I considered a different style at several points, including at the beginning and also when I was 3/4th done with the picture and the colors weren't working out. In the end, I like the design and I'm glad that some of you can appreciate the colors and layout, even if you dislike cute animals.
Three, I am getting sick of cute animals too. This may be good news or no news, because one, I don't consider my elephant design from last week to be a cute animal entry, I consider it a visually pleasing picture with some cute elements. I also am not sick of cute staplers or cute cheez-its, for example. :p But if this image were not of the Chinese zodiac, then I wouldn't really care for it much (as it is, I love China.
) Honestly, because people complain about cute animals so much, I almost feel obligated to do them so people don't start complaining I'm selling out.
But anyway, four, I won't be doing a cute animal next week. This isn't to appease anyone, it's just a fact that I want you to know now so you can get on my case less until it happens. Haha. I wish. ;)
@ eHalcyon - Some of my long post is relevant to yours. Anyway, of course the rooster is going to catch up! Look at how hard it's struggling. :D Also these are magical animals that grow to arbitrary sizes determined by how they fit into the picture. >_> And the ox is running daintily in order to not upset the mouse and its mai tai, but it's so awesome that it's going to get first anyway (OR SO IT THINKS.) :D