Before there were 200 dragons… there were these five

Someone recently asked me which dragons I painted first for Wyrmspan - Stonemaier Games. Such a good question! So I went back to the beginning and found these five.

These are the first dragons I painted and presented to Jamey (Dragon boss :)) Before the whole family of wings, scales, feathers and funny little faces took over my studio. Looking at them now, they are quite different from each other. I was exploring what a dragon could look like, taking bits from real animals and letting my imagination do the rest.

Because nature has already done so much of the work. Have you ever looked closely at a marine iguana? Honestly. A dragon. 🐉

A little world on his head

This first one was largely inspired by the Galápagos marine iguana. I love their heavy faces, their scales, their prehistoric look. They are so dragon-like already. Marine iguanas eat algae, so I gave him a little garden on his head.

I deliberately painted only his head. I liked leaving the rest for you to imagine.

Just associate the word “dragon” with this face, and suddenly you can picture a huge, heavy body, slowly moving around with a whole world growing on its back. Or perhaps not moving much at all.

In my imagination, the vegetation helps him hide from predators flying above. From up there, he could just be part of the landscape, like a tiny flying island or weird little green cloud.

A little moth, a little butterfly

For the second one, I looked at moths and butterflies. The big feathery “ears” came from moth antennae. Then came the patterned wings, their soft fuzzy edges, the furry body and those huge dark eyes.

There are so many extraordinary things happening on these tiny creatures when you take the time to look. The patterns alone! The colours! And some moths have the most fabulous fluffy little faces.

This one feels very sweet to me. I think it’s the way he sits there, looking straight at you. Very difficult to say no to that face.

The fiery one

Then I went somewhere a little more mythological. Eagle wings, a feline body, a horned head and lots of red fur. There is something of a griffin in this one, reimagined in my own way.

I loved the idea that a dragon could have feathers and fur. There was so much to explore beyond scales: different textures, different silhouettes, different ways of moving. And here, the red body against those cooler-coloured wings gave him a strong presence.

A little fiercer than his moth friend :)

My little dune dragon

I imagine this one living among sand dunes, flying quite low above the ground.

He is a bit heavy, you see. Those wings are doing their best, but I don’t think he gets much higher than five metres. Which is perfectly fine. You can have a lovely view of the desert from five metres.

My husband noticed something funny about his head that I hadn’t seen while painting him. You can read it in two ways: with his chin lifted, looking up, or with his head turned towards his wings, looking back at something.

Now I imagine him leaving for a great adventure, looking back after a few metres and thinking: “Did I leave the cave open?”

Please have a look and tell me which way you see his face. Once you see both, it’s quite hard to settle on one 😆

Paulette, obviously

And the last one is a little homage to Paulette, my sister’s beautiful Australian Shepherd.

My favourite dog after my own. I have to specify, there could be complaints at home.

Paulette is already some kind of crazy dragon herself, so of course I had to paint her as one. I took inspiration from her colours, her fluffy coat and her personality, and let her turn into this long, furry creature with horns and whiskers.

Marine iguanas, moths, birds, cats, dogs… I kept looking at animals, mixing things together and wondering what would happen if I added wings here, feathers there, or made something tiny absolutely enormous.

And eventually, there were around 200 of them.

Do you recognise any of these from your game? And which one would you choose?

If you’d like a dragon to live with you, you can browse my original paintings and limited edition prints here.

Colourfully,
Clémentine