Dragon Quartet

An imaginary piece, a companion of sorts to Dragonheart.

Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 cm

One-off Posters

Three of these wonkily lettered posters are on village notice boards. One remains to go up...

Dragonheart

A flight of fancy...

Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 cm

St. George and the Exhibition

I was going to write a straightforward I'm-really-looking-forward-to-exhibiting-at-St.-George's piece.

But then the title of the post occurred to me.

And then the drawing had to happen.

But I am really looking forward to exhibiting at St. George's (in Wash Common, Newbury; the exhibition is this weeend, 17th to 19th April 2015). I'm taking them pictures of trees. No dragons. I hope they don't mind.

Cotton Bag: Yin Yang Dragons 2

And here is the second of my attempts to twist these flexible fellows into the Taoist symbol for light and dark. I wasn't quite satisfied with the first one; while it did work, it had too much space in it. This time, the dragons (a different pair) are trying really hard - you can see that they are both having to hold their tails in place!

Cotton Bag: Yin Yang Dragons

I had thought that I had done with the dragons for a while (they're great fun to draw and noodling with the Celtic-style knotwork and borders was fun, too, but after a while you just need to do something else...) but then I had the idea of using the dragons' vaguely comma-like shapes to make a yin-yang symbol. Or something rather like it.

Cotton Bag: Dragon Knot 2

Here's another tangled dragon, a development on the dragon knot design. I thought it was going to be the last - for now - but I had a new idea for the dragons.

Watch this space blog...

• Click here to find out more about my decorated Cotton Bags. 

Three Cotton Bags: Five Dragons

Double trouble! These two dragons are rather tangled up in the single strand border... maybe they ate the other strand(s)?

Cotton Bag: Dragon Knot

It looks happy enough, but this dragon seems to have got a bit tied up in the border - maybe it's pretending to be part of the border. Whether it's lying in wait or hiding from someone (or something), I wouldn't like to say.

Cotton Bag: Red and black dragon, entwined in Celtic border

Is this one more gothicky?

Cotton Bags: Ice and fire, together, with glitter

I added a spot of glitter to the fire dragon, and here it is with its deadly rival, the ice dragon.

• Click here to find out more about my decorated Cotton Bags.

Cotton Bag: Black Spiral Dragon

More glitter! This started off as a gothic dragon - all black and purple and red - but then I added some yellow and orange in the background to enhance the contrast and I wasn't quite so sure about the description. "Black" will do.

Cotton Bag: Celtic Ice Dragon

If there's a fire dragon, it's perfectly reasonable to expect there to be an ice dragon.So here it is. I'm not sure that you can tell from the main photograph, but I added some glitter to enhance the icy effect - and because the glitter fabric paints I had ordered arrived in the post yesterday. It might be easier to see in this oblique close-up:

Cotton Bag: Celtic Fire Dragon

Everybody knows that dragons (sometimes) breathe fire. This one certainly does! I think it might be a bit annoyed that it's got its tail caught in the loop of the Celtic border, actually.

Cotton Bag: Blue Spiral Celtic Dragon

The second stage in the (r)evolution of the spiral dragon design. This fellow is largely done in ordinary wax crayons - apart from the paler green background, which is fabric wax crayon simply because I liked the colour better. I added a few loops to the border to make it more interesting.

Cotton Bag: Spiral Celtic Dragon

The dragon has got longer and acquired wings... he's also moved out of the butterfly house and into a circle (or should that be a disc?). I have plans to sell these bags at a local fete and it occurred to me that the butterflies might be ever so slightly challenging to the masculinity of some potential customers (and other customers might just prefer a disc). Plus, it's always nice to try new ideas out. This one might (r)evolve a little over the next few iterations.

• Click here to find out more about my decorated Cotton Bags.

Cotton Bag: Red Celtic Dragon Butterfly

I don't make any claims for the authentic Welshness of this one, but it will soon be on its way to Wales, to be put through its paces by one of my friends.

It was done with "ordinary" wax crayons, as per my last post. The results are indistinguishable from the fabric wax crayons at this stage.

• Click here to find out more about my decorated Cotton Bags.

Cotton Bag: Celtic Dragon Butterfly

I was thinking of doing another fantasy butterfly, but I wasn't sure where I'd go with it. Fortunately, I was struck with inspiration at work today. This is based on the Common Blue template.

Only one bag left to decorate...

EDIT(1) And this one is SOLD.

EDIT(2) However, I do have a few large, plain handkerchiefs; here's one that almost matches the bag. I decorated it in pen, because the idea of trying to blow your nose on a waxed surface is just plain wrong. Just in time for the end of the hayfever season...

>Atchoo!<

• Click here to find out more about my decorated Cotton Bags. 

Lego Minifigures 42: Green Dragon

It was St. George's day yesterday, so I'm a bit late with this, I suppose. However, my son's current school project is dragons and that is still ongoing. I like dragons - all those larger-than-life myths, legends and outright fantasies. Not to mention metaphor, of course.

This particular dragon is lurking in his cave with his modest hoard (although he has managed to find a cave with a golden floor). I think he'd better be careful, though - those crystals look like they might belong to the rock monsters!

To add a bit of atmosphere, I lit a candle to the right of the dragon's "cave" (shoebox). That provided a few warmer highlights, which I think look right. I was, however, a bit worried that the canvas might prove to be too small; the dragon is quite a bit larger than the average minifigure, and there was quite a lot of detail to cram in. But it all worked out in the end.

Acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm.