Countless artists have depicted volcanic lava dragons, or dragons that look like they are made of lava with a black scaly crust. I'll probably do one of those someday. Back some years ago I had the idea, but decided to save the lava only for the dragon's drool. If you were a fire-breathing volcano dragon, wouldn't you drool lava?
This picture was done on grey paper, so I added the black parts with ink and the lava with gouache. It was done at a time when I was watching Mount Etna erupt almost every night, through a live "lava-cam" which was set up on a nearby cone. I had lots of fresh visual reference, at least for the volcano part. The volcano-cam was later destroyed in an eruption (what a surprise!) and current observation cameras at Etna are placed far out of range, which takes away that dragonish intimacy with the lava. The title is "Typhoeus, Volcano Dragon." "Typhoeus" (or Typhon) was a huge fiery monster who was eventually imprisoned by Zeus under Mount Etna, where he resides to this day.
Typhoeus is ink and gouache on grey paper, 8 1/2" x 9 1/2", October 1998.
1 comment:
I really like this one. :)
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