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Hmm decided to re-add this one because of the fact that it was one of the last good detailled perspectives I did. I'm actually quite proud of the way the town ended up.
Not much else to say. As for the scene, that's what happens when you fly too high and air becomes too thinn to breathe.
Not much else to say. As for the scene, that's what happens when you fly too high and air becomes too thinn to breathe.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Fantasy
Species Western Dragon
Size 1000 x 706px
File Size 215.2 kB
Great quality artwork but the picture as described doesn't make sense to me for two reasons. One, nobody in the city seems concerned that a huge dragon is about to crush them..... and two, the notion that a dragon would ignore its own instincts of self preservation and fly too high to breathe, on the orders of a mere human, seems utterly ridiculous. I can't imagine why a person who likes dragons would draw something like this.
I can still enjoy this though by offering a different interpretation of the scene. The dragon is deliberately throwing the rider off in the city for all the humans to see, to tell them that dragons do not serve humans as their draft animals!
BTW, love Romania. When I was in the U.S. Army in Germany, I was invited to do a display there and dressed about a dozen Romanian soldiers in ancient Roman Armor (Roman military research and reenactment is a hobby of mine), and we had a big ceremony to dedicate a big statue of the Emperor Trajan, whose conquest of Dacia gave Romania its distinctive Roman culture.
I can still enjoy this though by offering a different interpretation of the scene. The dragon is deliberately throwing the rider off in the city for all the humans to see, to tell them that dragons do not serve humans as their draft animals!
BTW, love Romania. When I was in the U.S. Army in Germany, I was invited to do a display there and dressed about a dozen Romanian soldiers in ancient Roman Armor (Roman military research and reenactment is a hobby of mine), and we had a big ceremony to dedicate a big statue of the Emperor Trajan, whose conquest of Dacia gave Romania its distinctive Roman culture.
What can I say? I was young and didn't think much about the logic behind it. Interpret it witch ever way you like. I don't mind.
And glad you enjoyed your time here. Odd that English has it spelled as Trajan When his actual name was ( I think ) "Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus". In our History books he's labeled as Traian. Oh well. Differences in translation.
And glad you enjoyed your time here. Odd that English has it spelled as Trajan When his actual name was ( I think ) "Marcus Ulpius Nerva Traianus". In our History books he's labeled as Traian. Oh well. Differences in translation.
That's curious about Romanians including the I in TraIjan, as the Romans themselves didn't, but adding the 'us' at the end is correct and seen on Roman coins and inscriptions, but I believe even in Roman times he may have simply been referred to as "Trajan" for short instead of his complete name with titles.
I fin it fascinating how so many people in Romania still have ancient Roman names... far more people than in Italy today!
Oh, and I forgot to mention the third implausible thing about the picture.... it would be a one in a million chance that a dragon flying thousands of feet in the sky, and then becoming unconsious, would somehow crash right in the middle of a town instead of the surrounding contryside.
But great quality art. I wish you had set your dragon comic in that kind of medieval environment, and have it an intelligent creature that would logically dominate such a world instead of just a 'dog-like' pet in a modern world much like ours. I think you would get a lot more readers, especially dragon fans, with a comic that made fun of all the ridiculous dragonslayer nonsense, for a an intelligent dragon of that great size would have no fear of humans armed with only medieval weapons, and I could imagine a lot of funny stories of humans futilely trying to fight or steal treasure from it, only to always end in failure. In your comic, the dragon is little more than a scaly "Clifford the Big Red Dog", or "Marmaduke". But maybe that's how you want your dragons to be, nothing more than a relatively dumb and loyal pets to a human (or elf) in our modern world. It just seems a waste for such a great talent.
Interesting that the Dacians of ancient Romania carried standards in the image of dragons. Perhaps they worshipped them as we know little of their actual culture. A comic about ancient Dacia/Romania would also be interesting.
I fin it fascinating how so many people in Romania still have ancient Roman names... far more people than in Italy today!
Oh, and I forgot to mention the third implausible thing about the picture.... it would be a one in a million chance that a dragon flying thousands of feet in the sky, and then becoming unconsious, would somehow crash right in the middle of a town instead of the surrounding contryside.
But great quality art. I wish you had set your dragon comic in that kind of medieval environment, and have it an intelligent creature that would logically dominate such a world instead of just a 'dog-like' pet in a modern world much like ours. I think you would get a lot more readers, especially dragon fans, with a comic that made fun of all the ridiculous dragonslayer nonsense, for a an intelligent dragon of that great size would have no fear of humans armed with only medieval weapons, and I could imagine a lot of funny stories of humans futilely trying to fight or steal treasure from it, only to always end in failure. In your comic, the dragon is little more than a scaly "Clifford the Big Red Dog", or "Marmaduke". But maybe that's how you want your dragons to be, nothing more than a relatively dumb and loyal pets to a human (or elf) in our modern world. It just seems a waste for such a great talent.
Interesting that the Dacians of ancient Romania carried standards in the image of dragons. Perhaps they worshipped them as we know little of their actual culture. A comic about ancient Dacia/Romania would also be interesting.
Oh, you forgot to point out how implausible the idea of a dragon is... they aren't real after all. How dare I draw one?
And you know, maybe I didn't do such a scenario because I don't like such a scenario? I'm sure there's some comic out there with an intelligent dragon dominating people in medieval times. Think you'd find more enjoyment perusing something like that then to try and change my preferences. Because, here's a hint. You won't be able to change my preferences, especially in the manner you are trying.
I appreciate your sincerity and respect it. But you must also respect the fact that my preferences lie elsewhere and I do not take pleasure in such comments.
Have a nice day.
And you know, maybe I didn't do such a scenario because I don't like such a scenario? I'm sure there's some comic out there with an intelligent dragon dominating people in medieval times. Think you'd find more enjoyment perusing something like that then to try and change my preferences. Because, here's a hint. You won't be able to change my preferences, especially in the manner you are trying.
I appreciate your sincerity and respect it. But you must also respect the fact that my preferences lie elsewhere and I do not take pleasure in such comments.
Have a nice day.
I will finish simply with this. You are wrong again. A fossil find from Romania actually proves that a giant flying reptile large enough to swallow a person is not only plausible, but fossil proof was found in in your own country. The land vertebrate with the largest skull known to science happens to be a flying reptilian pterosaur from Romania whose head is over 3 meters long, with a mouth gape a meter wide feet wide, and a wingspan something in excess of 9 meters.
Good luck with you dragon cartoon, young man.
Good luck with you dragon cartoon, young man.
ohh dude, I was thinking about something like this and it reminded of this pic you did years ago!
I wanted to ask you, do you even know how high a dragon could fly if it were a world similar to Earth? I'm curious because I want to draw scenes of dragons flying, but I'm not sure how high they could go, I do like to make things a bit "realistic", mostly because my fantasy world would be similar to our planet, that's why I ask :P
I did some research, but I'm a bit confused now.
I wanted to ask you, do you even know how high a dragon could fly if it were a world similar to Earth? I'm curious because I want to draw scenes of dragons flying, but I'm not sure how high they could go, I do like to make things a bit "realistic", mostly because my fantasy world would be similar to our planet, that's why I ask :P
I did some research, but I'm a bit confused now.
Hi, firstly, thanks for commenting.
Secondly, your art is nice!
And thirdly... about your question.
Hrm... well I am sad to say that I am quite positive that a dragon, in the shape and size we imagine them, and given a world with similar conditions to Earth... would not be able to fly.
Here's why I think this:
Firstly, let's face it. We seem to imagine dragons as being quite big... a LOT larger then any living or previously living creature that we know of ( maybe pterodactyls came close... but they had a very different type of body then we imagine dragons to have. In order to generate enough power to obtain lift from beating it's wings, a dragon would need to have a very large muscle mass... that would also make it heavier in consequence. MAYBE... dragons could fly if they were... smaller... a lot smaller then most people imagine them. Maybe the size of large birds at best. Not to mention that muscle requirements for an organism do not grow proportional to size... but I'm sure you already know this stuff.
But let's neglect the problem of size and aerodynamics. There's still problems. First of all... the classic look of a dragon is with 2 wings... this seems to be insufficient for proper flight... if you look at the way other flying creatures are built. All flying creatures need a means to stear their bodies... in addition to keeping themselves in the air. Birds usually have tail feathers to help with this... bats have the stretchy wing membrane connect to their lower legs and tail to help with that as well... and insects have 2 pairs of wings ( so 4 wings total ). Back when my own dragons were capable of flight, I thought to incorporate that kind of mechanic in their body, and i obtained something like this:
http://ajder.deviantart.com/art/Hap.....-year-45692931
though it's also slightly visible in this drawing... mainly a secondary set of fins alongside the dragon's tail that were supposed to act like a rudder in addition to the counterbalancing tail... but i dropped that because it was too annoying to draw... and in essence wouldn't make much sence for having the necessary muscle mass there to be able to properly make use of it.
Mind you this is just my "intuitive" physics speaking... I could be utterly wrong...
But my thought stands... given the dragons commonly accepted shape and size, and given Earth's conditions.... they wouldn't be able to fly.
SO then how COULD they fly? well there's an umber of things that could change about the environment or the dragon to achieve that. The lazy way out is of course to just make the dragons "magical" and use that lame excuse to explain why they can fly ( they supplement their flight with their magic... that just sounds like a lazy excuse IMO ... using magic to explain everything ).
Others have more... down to earth modifications... like dragons producing Helium in special organs that would help with their weight... ( and if you are troully ambitious you could give them hollow bones like on birds to further reduce weight... but at the cost of their bodies becoming rather frail... )... though honestly... again, given their size, they would probably need to be blimps to realistically defeat the force of gravity.
But what about the environment itself? If you want to keep it exactly in earth like conditions... I guess I'm out of ideas... but here's a few modifications that could help a dragon fly:
- having a planet with a weaker force of gravity then on earth.
- having an atmosphere with more Oxygen concentration then on Earth ( oxygen is the fuel that makes our bodies work... with more oxygen your muscles can preform better. ( though I hear the theory is that it also allows things like insects to grow to be MUCH larger... )
There's probably other ideas... these are just off the top of my head.
Sorry if I couldn't really answer your question... but like i stated above... I don't think Dragons could fly. My dragons have since became flightless ( the wings becoming courtship accessories.... like a peacock's tail ).
But honestly, I don't see why you would want to really "aim" for realism with this sort of topic... if anybody comes up to you and say that it's utterly unbelievable that a creature that size could fly... chances are they are just being jerks. This isn't like real animals that people can see and compare too. It's a fictional creature, and people tend to have much more lax sences of logic when confronted with them... that's just my opinion.
Secondly, your art is nice!
And thirdly... about your question.
Hrm... well I am sad to say that I am quite positive that a dragon, in the shape and size we imagine them, and given a world with similar conditions to Earth... would not be able to fly.
Here's why I think this:
Firstly, let's face it. We seem to imagine dragons as being quite big... a LOT larger then any living or previously living creature that we know of ( maybe pterodactyls came close... but they had a very different type of body then we imagine dragons to have. In order to generate enough power to obtain lift from beating it's wings, a dragon would need to have a very large muscle mass... that would also make it heavier in consequence. MAYBE... dragons could fly if they were... smaller... a lot smaller then most people imagine them. Maybe the size of large birds at best. Not to mention that muscle requirements for an organism do not grow proportional to size... but I'm sure you already know this stuff.
But let's neglect the problem of size and aerodynamics. There's still problems. First of all... the classic look of a dragon is with 2 wings... this seems to be insufficient for proper flight... if you look at the way other flying creatures are built. All flying creatures need a means to stear their bodies... in addition to keeping themselves in the air. Birds usually have tail feathers to help with this... bats have the stretchy wing membrane connect to their lower legs and tail to help with that as well... and insects have 2 pairs of wings ( so 4 wings total ). Back when my own dragons were capable of flight, I thought to incorporate that kind of mechanic in their body, and i obtained something like this:
http://ajder.deviantart.com/art/Hap.....-year-45692931
though it's also slightly visible in this drawing... mainly a secondary set of fins alongside the dragon's tail that were supposed to act like a rudder in addition to the counterbalancing tail... but i dropped that because it was too annoying to draw... and in essence wouldn't make much sence for having the necessary muscle mass there to be able to properly make use of it.
Mind you this is just my "intuitive" physics speaking... I could be utterly wrong...
But my thought stands... given the dragons commonly accepted shape and size, and given Earth's conditions.... they wouldn't be able to fly.
SO then how COULD they fly? well there's an umber of things that could change about the environment or the dragon to achieve that. The lazy way out is of course to just make the dragons "magical" and use that lame excuse to explain why they can fly ( they supplement their flight with their magic... that just sounds like a lazy excuse IMO ... using magic to explain everything ).
Others have more... down to earth modifications... like dragons producing Helium in special organs that would help with their weight... ( and if you are troully ambitious you could give them hollow bones like on birds to further reduce weight... but at the cost of their bodies becoming rather frail... )... though honestly... again, given their size, they would probably need to be blimps to realistically defeat the force of gravity.
But what about the environment itself? If you want to keep it exactly in earth like conditions... I guess I'm out of ideas... but here's a few modifications that could help a dragon fly:
- having a planet with a weaker force of gravity then on earth.
- having an atmosphere with more Oxygen concentration then on Earth ( oxygen is the fuel that makes our bodies work... with more oxygen your muscles can preform better. ( though I hear the theory is that it also allows things like insects to grow to be MUCH larger... )
There's probably other ideas... these are just off the top of my head.
Sorry if I couldn't really answer your question... but like i stated above... I don't think Dragons could fly. My dragons have since became flightless ( the wings becoming courtship accessories.... like a peacock's tail ).
But honestly, I don't see why you would want to really "aim" for realism with this sort of topic... if anybody comes up to you and say that it's utterly unbelievable that a creature that size could fly... chances are they are just being jerks. This isn't like real animals that people can see and compare too. It's a fictional creature, and people tend to have much more lax sences of logic when confronted with them... that's just my opinion.
oh wow I thought you completely ignored my question like many artists do!
Thank you, I like your art too.
It's ok, I've read what you say many times, and it makes sense, thing is that creating a more realistic world where creatures similar to dragons could fly isn't something that I wanted to do, I need to keep in mind so many things and do infinite research like if I were a god that is going to create a real world, I just want to maintain the typical medieval age stories with dragons, and some other beasts, and maybe a bit of magic.
Even if it wouldn't be possible for a "western dragon" to fly, I'll draw them flying, that's why I said that I wanted to make something a bit realistic, which means that as long they have wings big enough to make their flight believable, they will fly, what I will not do is a dragoness like the one from Shrek with so tiny wings and flying, or dragons flying over the stratosphere.
What I mostly wanted to know, is about the oxygen on high altitudes, I wasn't sure how high a dragon could go and be able to breath just fine, just to not exaggerate their flight height... I did a bit more of research, and what I found is ok for what I need, they could fly high enough to make nice pics from above!
Magic is a cheap solution for everything, that's why I hate magic :P, magic is only good because you can create nice effects hah.
But yeah, in example, I love eastern dragons, but obviously they couldn't fly, you can't even think of it if you don't think about magic.. and I want to add eastern dragons in my stories too, I guess I'll need to use that magic excuse if they fly :/
Even if that's not the answer that I was looking for, thank you very much for your reply! I learned some interesting stuff, like insects that could be bigger with more oxygen concentration o_O
Thank you, I like your art too.
It's ok, I've read what you say many times, and it makes sense, thing is that creating a more realistic world where creatures similar to dragons could fly isn't something that I wanted to do, I need to keep in mind so many things and do infinite research like if I were a god that is going to create a real world, I just want to maintain the typical medieval age stories with dragons, and some other beasts, and maybe a bit of magic.
Even if it wouldn't be possible for a "western dragon" to fly, I'll draw them flying, that's why I said that I wanted to make something a bit realistic, which means that as long they have wings big enough to make their flight believable, they will fly, what I will not do is a dragoness like the one from Shrek with so tiny wings and flying, or dragons flying over the stratosphere.
What I mostly wanted to know, is about the oxygen on high altitudes, I wasn't sure how high a dragon could go and be able to breath just fine, just to not exaggerate their flight height... I did a bit more of research, and what I found is ok for what I need, they could fly high enough to make nice pics from above!
Magic is a cheap solution for everything, that's why I hate magic :P, magic is only good because you can create nice effects hah.
But yeah, in example, I love eastern dragons, but obviously they couldn't fly, you can't even think of it if you don't think about magic.. and I want to add eastern dragons in my stories too, I guess I'll need to use that magic excuse if they fly :/
Even if that's not the answer that I was looking for, thank you very much for your reply! I learned some interesting stuff, like insects that could be bigger with more oxygen concentration o_O
Hrm, well I do not know how oxygen becomes more rarefied with hight... but i DO know that people who travel to high places have to undergo acclimatization as they go, to adapt to the lower oxygen concentration. With proper, and long acclimatization they can survive just fine... but if you happen to just teleport yourself to a high place from ground level... or were to fly up real fast, chances are you wouldn't have enough time to aclimatizate... you could die of asphyxiation real easy.
This little vid talks about a similar situation with the game Bioshock infinity witch had a similar situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ZWirICmG8
might give you some ideas.
This little vid talks about a similar situation with the game Bioshock infinity witch had a similar situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ZWirICmG8
might give you some ideas.
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