Sunday, January 19, 2014

Scale by Dragon Scale

Drawing a Komodo Dragon

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 
for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

Komodo Dragon. 11x17" Ballpoint Pen and Ink wash

It's really hard to believe that the Komodo Dragon (the largest living lizard) was only discovered by humans about 100 years ago. Really? Yup, I'm not joking. They have lived on Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Islands for millions of years and amazingly their existence was unknown to us until they were discovered in 1910. It's basically a living dinosaur. Reaching 10 feet in length, weighting over 350 pounds, Komodos can still reach speeds up to 11 mph in bursts. And they have a life span of more than 30 years. There are around 5,000 of them left, and sadly they have been driven onto the endangered species list. 

Besides being such a interesting animal to draw, the details of their scaly skin just pulled me in. I'm a sucker for repetitive textures, and just love when patterns are woven over a shape. Doing a drawing like this is like knitting a sweater for me. It becomes a form of meditation. As you can see from my progress pictures below I basically crocheted the scales on, while drawing from head to toe.

Here are some photos taken during my drawing process













Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 
for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

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