Sometime in 1977 I read some fantasy tales by Jack Vance. I read "The Dragon Masters" and "The Dying Earth." I read these books mostly to get ideas for illustrations, though they were entertaining enough. I did some nametag miniatures from "Dragon Masters" which I marketed at conventions. This one shows the mutated dinosauroid "dragons" from the book, having at each other. They were semi-intelligent and knew how to use weapons as well as their inborn fighting abilities. Vance used dinosaurs as the models for these "dragons," adding an extra pair of legs in the midsection. I also used dinosaurs as models, especially the "old-style" Tyrannosaurus Rex, who doesn't look like that any more. Back in those days, I depicted dinosaurs and dragons if I felt like it. Nowadays I would hardly do any pictures of dinosaurs as they have been pretty much monopolized by professional artists like James "Dinotopia" Gurney or Bob "Godzilla" Eggleton. Any dinosaur or dragon I did now would look exactly like the well-known version of one, because these creatures are "standardized." Back in 1977 I was an amateur and I didn't know that, so I did whatever I thought fit the illustration.
The Dragons nametag miniature is ink and watercolor on Fabriano paper, 3 1/2" x 2 1/4", summer 1977.
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