Dated 31/05/2011

"Next stop is the Desert of Dragons & Dinosaurs - where this route terminates. PERMANENTLY."

---

Remember what I said about two-and-a-half years late being better than never?...

It's a slight sense of deja vu as I bring to you another incredibly belated request picture for a good friend of mine,  draxi AKA Draconis. He had asked me way back in September 2008 if I could create a picture involving his dragon character in anthropomorphic form and Rexar engaged in some vehicle crushing activity - a fairly open-ended brief which would hopefully grant me some room for creativity. Much like my last request picture for Lawliet, this idea was subsequently put on hold but certainly not forgotten. Having conceived of a suitable composition, I had attempted to begin the project some time ago but struggled enormously with the anatomy, which led me to put it on hold again.

After completing Lawliet's request, I felt it only right that I get back to this one as well, but I decided to ditch the previous incarnation and start over. Whilst much of my original conception was of little interest, I was still keen on one particular aspect of it: Draconis crushing an upturned bus lengthways. After a bit of thought I then came up with this idea involving Rexar holding the bus between his feet to add an element of 'teamwork' into the whole affair.

The desert thing on the other hand was something out of left field - I had originally thought of a city or scrapyard setting, but given that this would've required further detailed drawing, scanning, colouring etc., I ultimately decided I couldn't be bothered! Hence instead, I went down my usual track of picking a natural setting which I can create reasonably easily using my tablet. It's probably not what Draconis would have envisaged (for which I apologise) but I ended up rather liking how it came out, so I stuck with it.

This one took three attempts to draw out, so it was not anywhere near as frustrating as my last submission. Whilst there are elements of it that I think are perhaps the wrong shape or wrong size, I found drawing most of the anatomy seemed to flow quite naturally on this occasion. I didn't want to go overboard with the detail but I decided to carry on a bit longer with the shading than I did with the last picture, so artistically I'm quite happy with it. In many ways, I'm actually quite glad I didn't do this picture back in 2008 or 2009, because given how my artistic methods and standards have changed since then, I don't think it would have come out anywhere near as good.

Draconis - my apologies for keeping you waiting so long, my friend, but I really hope this surprise was worth the wait.


RRRex