WEIRD DRAGONS

This guy has a snout like a gavail, kind of beaver feet,
and I 'm not sure what animal has little knobs like that.

I attend a writers' critique group most weeks, and I generally spend most of the time listening. When I listen I like to doodle, and what I'm doodling has nothing to do with what I'm listening to. My high school biology teacher was stunned because I would be drawing constantly the whole time he was lecturing, but I was still able to get A's in his class. I mention this because I have a habit of drawing dragons during my writers' meeting, and I don't want people to think I'm not paying attention. Rarely does anyone in the group read a story that has anything to do with dragons, but for some reason that's where my brain goes.

I guess this is pretty typical

Usually my basic dragon prototype is an alligator head, a dinosaur body, iguana spikes, and giant bat wings. But I've been playing around with the form and trying to introduce DNA from some other species (I really was paying attention in biology class).

Different kind of dino body.

I scanned a few and added some color in photoshop.

Aquatic dragon (I don't think he's going to fly very far with those wings).

Maybe a rainbow stork dragon? Definitely from the tropics. The feet remind me of aye-aye hands (except with webbing)

Snapping turtle head. I figure this guy doesn't move to fast, except for his head and neck. And those wings are just for show. Maybe, like a hippo, he sits with most of his body under water and the  heads whips around and catches prey. Maybe the wings swish the fish to where the head can snap them up.

Not quite sure what to say about this guy. Probably good at texting with those fingers.  But why is his head so heavy?

Sketchbook doodles

After years of preaching to my kids and my students the importance of carrying around a sketchbook with you, I finally took my own medicine. Whether to draw from life when you're waiting at the airport, or just doodling creatures from your imagination I think it's an essential accessory.

I've posted a few of the latter here. No real explanation needed for the alien bug thing and the chubby crocodile guy. Regarding the giants, I just started thinking about how a humanoid creature would look if it was 20 feet tall or so. I figure the brain wouldn't be that much bigger than ours, but the jaw would have to be huge and powerful, which explains the proportion of the head. Obviously the feet would need to be thick and massive to support its weight. At first I assumed all the appendages would need to be thick and massive, but in the 3rd sketch I came up with the idea of long, relatively delicate fingers, because how else would it be able to accomplish anything requiring manual dexterity? The image puts me in mind of the largest sauropods that have tails that end it long delicate whips. I also tried to make all the skin sag, and the larger fleshy masses sag, like an elephant.