Project Description

2025’s dragon chimera is a porcupine dragon. As always, things I like, things I don’t like. I think I need to mess around with making the mashups look more natural in future iterations, try to make them look like a more logical evolution rather than a hodgepodge of features. Maybe I’m being overly critical.

Some closeups:

I looked at some rooster legs and feet, which is what I often do for my dragon designs. I’ve always thought they have more dragon-like qualities than lizards and alligators and such.

I made a porcupine quill brush just for this illustration. Not sure I’ll have use for it again (outside of future renditions of this dragon species), but it sure saved me a ton of time. Each banded quill is a single brush stroke.

I had fun painting some of the textures.

Over the years I have tried to put the dragons in natural settings, doing natural things. I want them to look more like something from a nature documentary or photos in a field guide than static illustrations. Sometimes I throw in a second or a third dragon to that end. What I haven’t done yet is have any of the dragons interact with other dragon species…something I might mess around with at some point.

I really enjoy drawing this type of tree bark. I like the chunky, plate-like texture.