Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Chinese Dragons




I'm writing a bonus post this week. The images above are chinese dragons I designed for Paizo Publishing's recently released Pathfinder Bestiary 3. The three dragons you see are a water dragon, a forest dragon and a sovereign dragon. The latter is meant to be a golden king of the dragons.

I had a great time designing these pieces. Each dragon was described as long and serpentine and I tried to strike a balance between the stylized, graphic way such creatures were often represented in traditional chinese art and something slightly more realistic. In other words, I didn't want to make them totally realistic because I felt they would lose some of the design elements that really make them interesting. I hope you like the results!

7 comments:

  1. Beautifully done. The one in the middle is a real standout!

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  2. Thanks again for sharing, really great work man! I'm now going to read your blog all the way back to the beginning.

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  3. Thanks Craig and Christina. I appreciate you taking the time to check this work out.

    Christina, it's funny, I've had more compliments on the one in the middle and I was expecting the water dragon to go over best. It's my favorite but I never seem to be 100% in tune with how people will react to my work. Do you find that happens to you?

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  4. out of the 3, i prefer the first one :)

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  5. I love your water dragon, so beautiful. The sovereign dragon need to have five claws, that is how the Chinese sees it. Other than that they are all beautiful. How did you do it?

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  6. LOVE your water dragon, Jim. She's a bit of an inspiration for a book I'm finishing.

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