Death of Smaug

I was sketching dragons again recently, well I often sketch dragons but this time there was a purpose, the theme of the month over at john-howe.com for December was Dragons. As a certain dragon was on my mind with the Desolation of Smaug hitting the silver screen* I ended up wondering how Smaug would look after the black arrow had done its job 😉 This was a fun dragon to work on, well any character from Tolkien is fun to attempt – rather than use traditional medium I worked in…

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A long expected sculpture

Back in 2009 we excitedly placed an order for a sculpture from Weta. Now, we don’t normally go in for large sculptures, but this one was to be of Smaug™ the Golden and was the first piece in John Howe’s and Weta’s range of sculptures from Middle-earth™ The illustration of Smaug™ the Golden by John Howe is probably known by everyone who has read The Hobbit. Now, when I look at an illustration like this, I must admit I didn’t think it would be possible to recreate it in 3 dimensions…

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Another Guardian

I wasn’t happy with the dragon I painted the other day link so, there was only one thing for it. Either I try to ignore it and hope the colour and shape of the dragon would grow on me over time, or I could paint a new dragon. Hopefully this new dragon fits the scene a little better, it certainly doesn’t annoy me like the first version.

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Guardian

Okay, a little background first, some time ago on the evil that is Facebook (which I obviously visit most days ;-)) John Howe posted a photograph with the comment “Speaking of dragons… it wouldn’t take a lot to transform those rocks on the left into something with scales, heading back into the sea.” A few comments later and it became “What if we all use this image as reference and see what we come up with?” After reading these and other comments I decided I’d give it a go with…

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