Dragons of Dragon Crate 3

And we're back today with our third installment of the Dragon Crate project.

This time, we're focusing on the 'evil' dragons; all of these dragons are themed around the dark side of fantasy. Let's meet the dragons!

Devil Dragon

This painting drove me nuts....I burned through so many sketches to get this done.

 Oh boy this one's going to get me in trouble with my Church...yes I do go to Church. Honestly, this wasn't meant to be a Devil Dragon; this was inspired by Disney's Fantasia sequence, 'Night on Bald Mountain'. Somehow it evolved into a Devil.

Ghost Dragon

 Ghost Dragon; I was thinking of gestalt organisms such as jellyfish (a creature made up of many many small creatures).

Zombie Dragon

Finally, the classic Zombie Dragon. I was trying to distill what made a zombie dragon: wings, breath and rotting parts. Hopefully it worked!

Dragons of the Dragon Crate 2

Here's round two of Dragon Crate.

These dragons are more themed around 'wholesome' nature; woods, flowers and....lightning? Ah well, it sounded good on paper.

Fairy Dragons

The butterflies of the dragon world I guess. You can see in the sketch I originally had more gruesome ideas.

Forest Dragon

A draconic living tree. I know I know, it's been done, but it's cool!

Lightning Dragon

This one was redone about a hundred times. I'm proud of the horns of this dragon; they were inspired by a samurai kabuto maedate (helmet crest). I remember being a little irritated with my art director because of all the changes he was asking for. Looking back now, I'm really thankful he got on my case. It really helped me take this dragon from okay to probably my favorite of the bunch.

Dragons of the Dragon Crate 1

As promised here's a closer look at the creation of the artwork that went into Dragon Crate.

For these three, I had specific natural environments in mind: caves, swamps and volcanoes. These are all natural and potentially very dangerous places. These are not environments for the faint of heart.

Cave Dragon

I was inspired by blind cave salamanders for this dragon. I loved the idea of cave creatures so utterly shaped by their environment. Not only did the darkness of the cave render eyes useless, it rendered pigmentation unnecessary as well. The giant claws and feelers on the dragon's nose came from star nosed mole, a burrowing mole that is also blind.

Swamp Dragon

Erik gave me a ton of freedom with this project, but was also clear that he wanted a swamp dragon. He didn't exactly have to twist my arm on that; I figured it would make for a cool design. I was really trying to get a rugged, Crocodile Dundee, bayou feel to this guy. Thick scales, a crocodile's face and a tail that could break an elephant's back, this guy's a monster!

Volcano Dragon

I believe this was my first dragon for the project. It was probably the easiest to start simply because I had the concept for him bouncing around my head long before I even got on board with Dragon Crate. The idea for this guy is that he's a living force of nature; lava, magma and fire that just happened to coalesce into a dragon. Dragons can make cool animal designs, but sometimes I like to think of them as more a force of nature, more godlike than mere flesh and bone.