Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Dragon's Progress




Back in the now dust-covered days of 1982 I did a lot of fan art for 'zines run by friends and imitators of Marion Zimmer Bradley. I also did illustrations for other fan publications ranging from comics to academic essays. This was one of them. It was an interior title page for an article by an MZB fan and friend. Other than being about dragons, I have no recollection of what the article was. Somewhere in my archives buried in dust is the magazine with the article and my illustration in it. There is some cuteness in this piece, notice the dragon warming its own tail with fiery breath, and the "literary" dragon in the bottom half with the fluffy quill pen and scroll, and the pince-nez glasses.

I don't usually do drawings or paintings of dragons. It's not because I don't like dragons. It's because I have not got enough knowledge of animal (reptile) anatomy to make a convincing dragon. But then so many renditions of dragons have been done throughout history, that all sorts of improbable anatomies have been created for dragonkind. I have a very nice book called "Dracopedia" by William O'Connor which has everything that I would need to know about making images of dragons as well as creating them in Photoshop. Maybe I should try to depict another dragon.

"Dragon's Progress" is ink on bristol board, 8" x 10", spring 1982.

1 comment:

Tristan Alexander said...

These dragons have a certain charm. Maybe you should try another!