I am really happy with the results of this painted Magic card, but I really struggled to recreate the iridescence of the snake skin. Anyone have tips on painting something like that?

this is something i recently painted for an online zine. the theme was birds, so i decided to draw an arctic scene with some penguins because i've been resenting the heat 😩 i recently started to use a photobashing technique to create references. i often neglect to use a reference because i assume i'll be fine without one but it makes everything go so much quicker!!!