Dragons. Not bound by the restraints of actually being real things, they can look however you desire them to. This book, by Jessica “Neondragon” Peffer, illustrates that perfectly – The sheer imagination throughout is incredible.
Roughly cut into chunks by elemental force, the book features over 70 dragons (and a whole host of other fictional beasts) of various size, colour, affiliation, each with a unique design choice, characteristic or trait. No two dragons look the same – unless they are the same breed, of course – but even then there are striking differences between male, female and younger dragons, as you’d expect.
From an undead dragon with a visible skeletal frame to a dragon with limbs seemingly composed of rocks, from long, Eastern inspired flowing dragons to gritty ones based on Western ideas, from dragons with lizard-like traits to ones that are clearly more physically avian, the author has crammed this book full with a diverse range of creatures. That it also contains other-worldly toads, pixies and fairies, mermaids, vampires and unicorns… It’s an impressive array.
All of the colouring in this collection is in an anime style, the vast majority of which is digital. It’s very tonal, with bold blocks of colour making the designs stand out, but without sacrificing the fine detail. As I mentioned above, no two dragons have the same “look”, and this extends to the colour schemes as well. Even creatures aligned to the same element have unique colour combinations, yet still look like they belong to their respective force of nature.
There are a few insights into the author’s working process, going from rough sketch, through inking, to colouring, then final touches – I would’ve liked more of them to be honest. I also would have liked the author to divulge some of her secrets to good colouring, but that may just be me being selfish. It does make me want to design my own dragons – just the initial flick through the pages when I first got the book set off my imagination receptors, with half-a-dozen ideas springing to mind which I had to sketch down onto paper very quickly or risk them being lost forever.
I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to be inspired into creating their own dragons, anyone who wants to see how to colour schemes can bestow personality upon static images or anyone who just wants to soak up some of the brilliant individuality each dragon has.
