A commission for Vexorum on DeviantArt of his dragon character.

This is the third in a sort of an elemental-themed trilogy - the others were fire and water, and this is earth and air.

The giant lion statue depicts one of Vexorum's other forms, a creature called Teneo. Interestingly, I had originally painted some generic fantasy-type castles in that spot, but Vex had asked if I could try to suggest the dragon's shapeshifting and I kept trying to think of ways to do that. He'd sent me five pieces of reference art, and looking back at them something about the lion form reminded me of Eastern mythology, which made me think of the Spring Temple Buddha (largest statue in the world), so I painted over the buildings with an impossibly massive statue instead. I sent a WIP to Vex, and we were both extremely surprised - apparently, there is a statue just like this in his story, which I didn't know about! Even the words I used to describe it in the email ("carved by the gods") was story-relevant. One or the both of us needs to invest in a better brand of tin foil for our hats, it seems.

The landscaped was referenced from photos taken by myself (in Maryland), my sister (in North Carolina) and my husband (here in Cape Town) - an international family effort! - and my wonderful Piet posed for the lion statue (making this the second time he's been an anthro lion). There's a ton of scaly detail that just doesn't show up in the web optimized version, so I posted a close-up of the dragon's head, as well. In between my bad shoulders and the power going out due to this country's terrible electric company, this took quite a while, at times I felt like I was painting an actual full-sized dragon scale by scale! But I enjoyed it. I'm actually rather sorry the trilogy is over!