Dragons of Dragon Crate 5

Finally, here are the Joker Dragons! I knew from the beginning I wanted two headed dragons to represent the Jokers. Where that reasoning comes from, I haven't a clue.

Two heads means double the firepower!

Well that's the entirety of the Dragon Crate project. Thanks for following along. I hope you've enjoyed this series of dragon goodness!

Dragons of Dragon Crate 4

And now to the fourth and final installment of the card suits of Dragon Crate. I came up with a theme of cold and...angels? Ah well, I think the thing these were meant to have in common was the color white. So there!

Dark Winter Dragon

This one looks awfully familiar...yes, this is an older painting that my client bought from me outright for his card.

Angel Dragon

 Thanks to Michael Rookard for helping me finish this bad boy.

 Frost Dragon

 

Secretly a draconic homage to Frozen. Hey, if inspiration strikes, run with it, don't argue!

So, that's my series of dragons for the Dragon Crate...NOT. Don't forget ladies and gentlemen, we have Jokers too! Coming soon!

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.

The Dragon Crate

Hello everyone! We wish you a (late) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This post is coming a little late due to moving. Christina and I are officially Pennsylvanians. Still strange to me and honestly, in my heart, I'll always be a New Yorker. 4 years of college in Massachusetts and 3 years of art school in California never dampened my feelings about being from New York and I don't think this will either.

So big post today. A project I worked on with Albino Dragon has shipped and is now officially public. Those of you who know me personally have already had an inkling of it, but now I can show all the details.

Erik, the CEO and Overlord of Albino Dragon contacted me early in 2014 to help him out with a project that had just completed funding over Kickstarter called the Dragon Crate project. He asked if I could paint 14 dragons for his dragon themed Bicycle playing card set. How could I possibly turn that down?!

From March to August, I had the time of my life designing these cards. Erik was a good combination of knowing what he wanted and trusting my creativity to carry the process along.

I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to do this project. There was nothing about it that made me not enjoy every minute of it. Was it smooth sailing? Hell no. But I would redo the bad with the good in a hearbeat. As an added bonus, the pay for this project made it possible for me to buy Christina's engagement ring. :-)

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be going over each card in detail in terms of its creation. Until then, Happy 2015!

The Dragon Whisperer

Well folks, an exciting post today! A game I contributed to, the Dragon Whisperer, is on sale! This is a milestone for me; my first commissioned dragon paintings! Thanks to Erik and Shane of Albino Dragon for having me contribute to this game. The boxed set is looking sweet. Here's the paintings!

 Reef  Dragon

Sand Dragon