Mythical madness: unusual dragons

IMAGES REMOVED in case of potential copyright violation (7/27/12)

Welcome to another edition of Mythical Madness, or fun with fantastical things on Fridays.

I try not to make a big deal about dragons, for the same reason as vampires. They are so overdone. But the Hobbit movie trailer has got me excited again about one of the most famous dragons of fantasy history: Smaug (to be voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, of Sherlock TV series fame). (Even though he probably won't be in the first movie. Which means almost two more years of waiting, drat).

So in the meantime, I trolled my favorite place to waste time visit, DeviantArt (see note at bottom about wasting time), for artist's renditions of Smaug (here's one of my favorites) - and found a whole bunch of other interesting dragons too.

A dragon serving tea, by a delightful creator of children's fantasy art, Omar Rayyan. (He illustrated Nightshade City by Hilary Wagner and Possum Summer by Jen K. Blom not to mention dozens of other books).

Now, for the show of unusual dragons. We'll start with the common garden variety of dragon: Garden Variety Dragons, by ~mcah on Deviant Art

Next, a steampunk dragon: Steampunk Dragon by ~Catoram-A on Deviant Art

These miniature dragons are popping up all over the internet, maybe thanks to inspiration of the pocket-sized dragons in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Just remember, they're not the safest of pets. They're only cute until they catch the couch on fire.Dragons are Real by ~acidburn08 on Deviant Art

Slightly more realistic for the home is a bonsai dragon, like this one:Bonsai Dragon by ~Polysoup on Deviant Art

What's your favorite kind of dragon: decorative , garden-variety, harmful pet, steampunk, or traditional terrifying monstrosity (e.g. Smaug)?


Note on wasting time: over Christmas break, I started not one but THREE new addictions: wasting good writing time by creating and feverishly adding to my new Pinterest, Tumblr and DeviantArt accounts. After a month of very unproductive writing, I finally got wise and deleted my Pinterest and Tumblr, but the DeviantArt account remains. My progress with writing has improved considerably in February, and the amount of creative juice generated by DeviantArt I hope makes up for the couple hours a week lost to browsing art.