New paintings and regular art updates.
I’m trying to come up with different Dragon designs. This was today’s idea. Batwing ears, crocodile type skin and scales, smoke gently streams from its mouth. I’m not sure how large it is? It could be two feet long or twenty meters! I’m pleased with it.
Part of my college course is to write a report as part of my final submission. I’m trying to produce something about the historical illustration of Dragons. From China and Japan, to the medieval era including images from medieval bestiaries, and on through time to the present day. But its such a huge subject, with so many branching ideas. When did dragons go from no limbs to four limbs, to four limbs and two wings? How has the depiction of their heads changed? Were they always fire breathing? Are they spirits or ‘real’ physical beings (albeit in a fantasy world). Do they communicate with humans, are they intelligent.
My intention is to identify types and styles of dragons. Describe how they have been depicted and expand my knowledge of the illustrators creating them and their incredible imaginations.
I’m looking at authors like JRR Tolkien, Cressida Cowell, who also illustrated their books and Josh Kidby who illustrated the covers of Terry Pratchetts ‘Discworld’ novels among others.
Spring cleaning and I found this card. It’s off a relative and it must be twenty or thirty years old. I was moving a bookcase amd found it down the back together with an A to Z of Stoke-on-Trent. Its so cute with the fire extinguisher and the startled bat!
It would be good to find more interesting things. Maybe a gold ring, or an earring that matches one I’ve lost. But no doubt I’ve already vacuumed them up!
Anyway I like this dragon, I will take him as a good omen for my college course project. Its about the mythology and history of dragons, and a children’s book based on a dragon story. So fingers crossed that I can get it done. X
Instead of an easle I prop a stand up in a chair. But sometimes it becomes a bit of a dumping ground. Empty mug, started to colour a canvas, pallette, brushes and tissues and a mug for water. Sketchbook with a zebra Dragon idea. I need to start painting but I have no get up and go. Tidy up and start, or worry and prevaricate. I don’t know. I need to do something soon. Maybe it’s these dark days that are getting to me? I need my mojo back….
They ask
‘what’s on the easle?’.
I say
‘a lot of stuff’
Tissues and a coffee cup
And other sorts of muck
A drawing of a dragon
A pallette and a brush
A green painted canvas
If you really want to look….
I ought to be painting
But there’s been a delay
My minds gone off the boil now
It’s not coming out to play…
One day I’ll get my mojo back
I’ll start to paint again
But till that day my easle
Is a place to rest my brain!
Oh I do love a filter, playing with colours. Adding layers, making the pattern slide around. Like Graffiti on a garage door. Splat! Somehow I am creating things that look medieval and Mexican or South American at the same time? I don’t know, but I’m enjoying playing with it.
I tried drawing a sort of Mediaeval image of how I imagined a dragon would look in an old book or manuscript. This was more to try and evoke the style than to copy a real drawing. I tried to think how I would draw a dragon if I was a monk adding illustrations or illuminations to an old bible or bestiary. I should probably have looked at images of George and the Dragon. But I wanted to draw a sinuous curve. I could also have mirrored the image so it would look like the letter S… I might try that. Anyway I’m not well so drawing is occupying my mind and distracting me. X
Where do ideas come from? Spoiler alert. I was just watching ‘ the Hobbit an unexpected journey’ the first film in ‘the Hobbit’ trilogy. At the end of the film the dwarves see the lonely mountain far in the distance. We follow a bird as it flies across the land to the mountain. There we see the dragon inside the mountain. Smaug, the dragon, wakes up and you see his eye. The pupil of the eye has a funny slit in it. Not exactly like this, but I wonder if I was subconsciously influenced by the film? You only see it for a couple of seconds but it’s a beautiful image. I think my dragon eyes are quite sweet, but not as good as the animated Dragon Eye of Smaug.
A dragon 🐲 in the Chinese style. Head and tail are large. The body thin and snake or worm like with a sinuous shape. Four legs, clawed feet. Apparently Imperial dragons had five claws and normal dragons had four.
I once made a dragon bowl in pottery class. I’d made the bowl in a mold and I carved a dragon like this inside. I gave it five claws and toes on each foot and it was carved to show the scales. I had it biscuit fired and it survived the heat. No cracks or blemishes. Then I glazed it. I can’t remember what colours, but I looked forward to seeing the result after the Christmas break (about thirty years ago). Unfortunately when we came back it was missing! The consensus was it must have been stolen! Soon after that I left the pottery class because I was so disappointed.
Drawn from my imagination. Half a dragons head drawn in tippex correction fluid on black cartridge paper. Mirrored in a photo edit, then stitched together as a whole head. My first Dragon of 2022. I’m just wondering when the Chinese year of the dragon is. Their images are amazing. I need to find out about their history x
Mallaband-Brown