When my friend in Italy posted me a Sennelier Watercolour USKbook as a gift, the panorama format of the sketchbook gave me the idea of using it like a medieval scroll and doing ink and wash illustrations rather than more realistic paintings. Though I usually do ‘one-off’ paintings and drawings, I realised I had ideas for enough different dragons to fill the whole sketchbook (and then some). To give it more of an illustrative look, I’ve decided I’ll add various Celtic-inspired borders. I’m also aiming to give the dragons proper backgrounds and environments, since a lot of my old dragon pictures just had the poor dragons floating in the middle of a white page, looking vaguely bewildered by the lack of a good lair to snuggle up in.
It’s been quite a while since I did any fantasy illustrations – I’ve mostly doing still lifes and landscapes over the last few years – so it will make a nice change, especially since I haven’t had time to work on my fantasy novel lately. I am excited at the prospect of making my Book of Dragons into an ongoing project.
Lord of Storms
The Lord of Storms soars through the clouds on a twenty-metre wingspan, stopping to rest atop high mountains once or twice a year. Lighting draws him to it so he can feed on its energy, while his movements through the clouds generate more lightning strikes; the dragon has a symbiotic relationship with storms. By beating his wings in various rapid tempos, he can generate static electricity and thunder as a defense mechanism. The Lord of Storms is not usually aggressive, but he will wield lightning in attacks if he feels threatened by other ‘creatures’ invading his territory; it is thought that the blue and white dragon is probably responsible for many unexplained plane crashes.
“Lord of Storms”. Daniel Smith and Winsor & Newton watercolours.
That’s the first entry in my Book of Dragons. Keep an eye on my blog for more, as I’ll be posting each dragon as I add it to the book.
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