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My wife loves dragons, so I'm looking for some kind of cool Art book that has cool pictures/prints of dragons (all shapes and sizes). My wife is an artist as well, but she's really big into the classical style where you only draw/paint what you see (from a picture or reference, etc) and that makes it difficult for her to work with things that are not actually "real", so a big book of dragon pictures would be really cool to her not only because she likes dragons, but also to spark her creativity and maybe paint her own.

Any ideas?

Deviant art?

A couple of years ago there was a book released to tie in with The Hobbit called Unleashing The Dragon. It is all about the design process for Smaug, with dozens of concept sketches, through paintings and renderings, all the way up to the finished design you see in the film (and say what you like about the film, it's hard to deny that Smaug is the definitive article for on-screen dragons). I highly recommend it.

And in more general terms for Fantasy artwork, the 'Chronicles: Art And Design' series for The Hobbit is chock full of sublime stuff, lots of John Howe and Alan Lee. Books 1, 3 and 5 are the art ones, the others focus on special/practical/digital effects and in my opinion, aren't as good.

The Dracopedia sounds like it might fit the bill.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dracopedia-the-great-dragons-william-oconnor/1111307778?ean=9781440310676&st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP518&k_clickid=3x518#productInfoTabs

 whitedragon wrote:
My wife loves dragons, so I'm looking for some kind of cool Art book that has cool pictures/prints of dragons (all shapes and sizes). My wife is an artist as well, but she's really big into the classical style where you only draw/paint what you see (from a picture or reference, etc) and that makes it difficult for her to work with things that are not actually "real", so a big book of dragon pictures would be really cool to her not only because she likes dragons, but also to spark her creativity and maybe paint her own.

Any ideas?

I'd suggest an Amazon search for

Michael Whelan
Bob Eggleton
Todd Lockwood
Ciruello
Keith Parkinson
Larry Elmore
John Howe

and so on. Many of these books are available used for under $10.

Does she only like dragons, or does she like fantasy art in general? If the latter, the Spectrum series is pretty good, although the earlier ones seemed to be a bit more painterly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Michael Whelan did the covers for the Pern books and lots of other stuff. Bob Eggleton has done a lot of dragon covers and Godzilla picture books. Todd Lockwood changed the face of DnD. Keith Parkinson and Larry Elmore rocked DnD back when Lockwood was in school, and John Howe made the LotR paintings that inspired Peter Jackson.

Thanks for the quick replies fellas! I'll let you all know what I decided on.

If you like a more old school dragon, check out the Art of the Dragonlance Saga:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Dragonlance-Saga-Edition/dp/0786911816

there are some great pieces in there of a large range of dragons.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 whitedragon wrote:
My wife loves dragons, so I'm looking for some kind of cool Art book that has cool pictures/prints of dragons (all shapes and sizes). My wife is an artist as well, but she's really big into the classical style where you only draw/paint what you see (from a picture or reference, etc) and that makes it difficult for her to work with things that are not actually "real", so a big book of dragon pictures would be really cool to her not only because she likes dragons, but also to spark her creativity and maybe paint her own.

Any ideas?

I'd suggest an Amazon search for

Michael Whelan
Bob Eggleton
Todd Lockwood
Ciruello
Keith Parkinson
Larry Elmore
John Howe

and so on. Many of these books are available used for under $10.

Does she only like dragons, or does she like fantasy art in general? If the latter, the Spectrum series is pretty good, although the earlier ones seemed to be a bit more painterly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Michael Whelan did the covers for the Pern books and lots of other stuff. Bob Eggleton has done a lot of dragon covers and Godzilla picture books. Todd Lockwood changed the face of DnD. Keith Parkinson and Larry Elmore rocked DnD back when Lockwood was in school, and John Howe made the LotR paintings that inspired Peter Jackson.

I recommend Bob Eggleton and Larry Elmore from that list as well as Michael Whelan (although I only know his SF art).

I actually sorta-kinda know Bob through friends (friend of a friend thing) as his wife used to be an artist in the SF and Fantasy con scene in Australia many years ago (Marianne Plumridge - who also does dragons).

This is one of my favorite art books ever, and it does contain some pretty swell dragons, but not exclusively so.

It's not a book, but there was a TV show on Animal PLanet a few years back, The Last Dragon.

Would a book about dinosaurs be useful, for references about anatomy, textures, etc?

Thanks for all the replies everyone! I ended up getting "Smaug" and the "Dracopedia", and now I have a whole list of other ones if these pique her interest!