I don't celebrate the Chinese New Year but this year I felt a special connection because I was born in a rooster year. My first recollection of Chinese New Year came when I was young and collected stamps. Each year the USPS would have a Chinese New Year stamp with year's animal on it. Below is the rooster stamp I had.
This particular rooster cutter was given to me as a gift so I can't give a link. Rooster cutters are pretty easy to find, just Google it. When I was searching the internet for images of Chinese New Year roosters, I came across this image. I loved how it incorporated different patterns on various parts of the rooster. I knew that I could achieve the same look with airbrushing with different pattern stencils. I sketched out where I wanted the difference sections to be on paper. Once I was happy with my drawing, I transferred it to the cookie. I piped and flooded each of the body sections with white icing. I airbrushed the two largest sections with stencils from Hedi Swap. For the tail feathers, I piped red dots. For the smaller feathers, I painted the details with red food coloring. Finally I piped the beak, crow feathers, wattle with red icing.