It Started With Dragons

Humans are usually inspired by something when they choose to start down a path, I was no exception when I started drawing. My Nana might have been the small start to it, but the big spark came when I fell madly in love with dragons. I would see them on book covers, statues, t-shirts, television; anywhere really and I couldn't help but be in total awe of them. At the age of ten I struggled with the knowledge that they weren't real, how could something so cool not be real?! I wanted them to be real, I started reading as many books as I could about them or just with them in them.

At this point I am only slightly interested in drawing, I've drawn a few cutesy little things for relatives and done some epic tracing in books, but nothing serious. It wasn't until I was twelve that I decided it was time to try to master it, especially in the area of dragons. My first dragon I drew happened one night with a lot of trepidation; could I do this? Was it going to turn out? If I couldn't do this would I keep trying?! When you see it, you may guess which book cover it is from ;)

Ruth the White Dragon
Done in Crayon
2000

Anne McCaffrey's dragons were a huge inspiration and when I finished this (without tracing which I think is obvious) I felt it was a HUGE success, so I kept drawing dragons. At first I just looked at other peoples art and drew it, but I eventual strayed away from copying and made my own dragons.

Roleplay Dragon
Colored Pencil
2002

Admittedly dragons were the only things I would draw till I was taking art classes in high school, then I felt I -had- to expand.

Fire Lizard
Colored Pencil
2003

But always I came back to the dragon, because I knew if I wanted them to be real in anyway, it had to be through art.

Poison Flower
Colored Pencil
2007

Earthling
Colored Pencil
2008

As silly as it may sound, to this day I still dream that they are real. My only consolation to this is that the dragon is one of the oldest 'monsters' in history and myth, spanning over different cultures that hadn't met at the times. So I still carry the small hope that they are out there somewhere, only reachable to us through art, books, video games, how ever we may see them.

Dragon head sketches
2013