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faile35 — Dominant Dragon

Published: 2006-08-01 01:51:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 6893; Favourites: 67; Downloads: 338
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Description Dragons make such great vessels for embodying the linked ideas of "power" and "evil." Like the "Dragon Emergent" oil painting from my gallery, this one is coming out of a lava pool. If you look carefully, you can see pen strokes on the wings and scales--it was a bad marker that I used. Anyway, I am convinced that some stories have to end with the bad guys winning and the good guys losing--if that wasn't the case, who'd fear for the good guys' safety in all the other ones. When I see this image, I think of just such a story. The wizard can flash his staff all he wants, and the caped warrior can swing that sword like there's no tomorrow, but the dragon is just TOO BIG, SUCKAS! "Game Over."

Maybe next time...

The original is pen and ink, about 14"x18" (35 cm x 45 cm), and took me about 25 hours to do (about eleven years ago, even though the copyright says 2000).

Enjoy! --Faile35
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Comments: 67

FracturedReality [2007-10-21 05:10:29 +0000 UTC]

Heh... and another one bites the dust. *patpat* Good Dragon.
I can actually see where the wings would attach to the back, but it does look kind of weird when you first glance at it. I Lurv the hand, though... the highlights on the talons are simply beautiful. And the expression in the face, "heh heh". *sigh* I don't have patience for crap like that.
Very well done, my cap is off teh ye.

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faile35 In reply to FracturedReality [2007-10-21 18:27:44 +0000 UTC]

I'm glad we see eye-to-eye on this one. Sometimes evil just has to smash the living daylights out of the good guys... Thanks!

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ajder [2007-02-01 06:31:46 +0000 UTC]

I have seen to many depcitions of evill dragons for my own good... trouth be known I am not fond of that concept of evill dragons at all... but that was probably the intention here... so looking beyond my love of dragons, you managed to portray this rather well, the head is exquisit and the way you used white outlines to depict the overall darkness is very good... however I feal like I must critick on the sacles on the dragon... those do not seem to portray the creature's volume at all... it dose not give the idea that his neck is cilindrical at all... much tahter that it's flat... like a cobra when it's hood is fully extended... the wings are a bit artificial as well seying as how there's absolutelly no muscle structure on the wing arms... how would he be able to actually flap those wings is ebyond me...

Well, i didn't mean to offend of course so if I did please excuse me...

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aseariel [2006-09-25 07:21:23 +0000 UTC]

that is a scary looking dragon

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faile35 In reply to aseariel [2006-09-25 13:21:35 +0000 UTC]

Yeah. Thank you. Sometimes the bad guys just have to win.

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aseariel In reply to faile35 [2006-09-25 15:27:01 +0000 UTC]

as you noted, if the bad guys never won, it wouldn't be that big of a deal when the good guys beat them.

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faile35 In reply to aseariel [2006-09-25 19:04:55 +0000 UTC]

Exactly.

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DaisyBurrows [2006-09-21 11:35:10 +0000 UTC]

I love how the dragon is subtle lighter pieces in the blackness

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faile35 In reply to DaisyBurrows [2006-09-21 11:42:26 +0000 UTC]

Thank you. One shadow rises slightly above another...

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DaisyBurrows In reply to faile35 [2006-09-26 12:56:33 +0000 UTC]

Exactly!

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Dyun [2006-08-28 19:16:12 +0000 UTC]

Well, you can't have a happy ending every time. Beautiful drawing, as usual. The detail is awesome, and the size of that dragon is absolutely frightening. Those people down there are nothing but ants. One smack with his paw, and they're history. I love the lighting in this piece. Great contrast. Just another day for this dragon. Just another extermination. He just wishes he could get a peaceful night's sleep without that vermin coming into his home. Reminds me of the ant invasion I have going on. Damned things. I don't want to kill them, but they're not getting the hint!

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faile35 In reply to Dyun [2006-08-29 04:53:45 +0000 UTC]

Exterminators are your friends. I, too, HATE bugs in my house. Unlike you, I will go very quickly to great and violent lengths to keep them out. When I learn there is a fly buzzing around indoors, I quit whatever I'm doing and go hunting until the sucker is gone. I have developed many strategies for tracking and eliminating flying insects, and my peripheral awareness for small, moving creatures is uncannily close to hyper-paranoid.

Okay, now that was an unexpected mouthful. Thank you for the compliments and the insight on this one. You see it as I do. "Just Another Extermination." Ho hum. I have often tried to imagine the look on the faces of the two intruders, though. I imagine it somewhat like the faces of the English footmen staring at the advance of the French cavalry in the Kenneth Branagh "Henry V."

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Dyun In reply to faile35 [2006-08-29 17:55:06 +0000 UTC]

I'm pretty close to hyper-paranoid when it comes to bugs, too. Actually, I'll let the spiders hang out, because they take care of some of the other less beneficial intruders. As for the ants, well, I can only blame myself. I left a bowl of candy corn in one of the cabinets, and didn't figure it out until I had an entire army marching across the kitchen. I don't enjoy killing them, mostly because I blame myself. They're just out to look for some food. If I leave it out, well, that's fair game I suppose. They tested my patience for a week, and yesterday I had enough. I wiped the poor critters out. Of course THAT's when I discovered the bowl of candy. *DOHH*.

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faile35 In reply to Dyun [2006-08-29 18:15:56 +0000 UTC]

I have a special fondness for the "redneck" ant-solution: gasoline. Yes, it kills lawn, and yes, it's not a good idea to use it in your house, but, well...

"snap, crackle, pop," if you know what I mean.

Alright, that was uncalled for, and I apologize for that entirely too-brutal comment. Your concern is the better, more civilized approach, and I admit it with some degree of shame. Maybe it's the candy corn that should be roasted...

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Dyun In reply to faile35 [2006-08-29 18:35:07 +0000 UTC]

gasoline?! Let me tell you something. I should NEVER be found ANYWHERE near gasoline, fire, heavy machinery, or anything that could slice anyone's head off. I'm dangerous. In fact I'll take the ordinary, harmless household appliance and make it a deadly weapon. Not because I'm smart enough to do so, but because my clumsiness knows no bounds.

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faile35 In reply to Dyun [2006-08-29 18:51:27 +0000 UTC]

"Tonight, on Deranged Killers at Large: She was a mild-mannered artist and wife in the Supberbian West Coast, until her rampage slew 134 people with a Cuisinart--What happened in the mind of the killer calling herself 'The Osterizer'?" Cut to scene with blender lying on blood-spattered floor. "Why did no one see it coming?" Cut to homely-looking 50-year-old man with pot-belly, saying, 'She seemed alright most of the time,... except for when she had that ant problem...' Cut to mug shot with eyes slightly glazed over, and Dyun's voice saying, 'I swear, it was an accident--the blender just slipped onto his head, and...'

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Dyun In reply to faile35 [2006-08-29 18:54:00 +0000 UTC]

That's the funniest thing I've read in a VERY long time!

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faile35 In reply to Dyun [2006-08-29 18:56:31 +0000 UTC]

Good. Happy to entertain...

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Dyun In reply to Dyun [2006-08-29 18:54:33 +0000 UTC]

P.S. look for that story in the news. It JUST might happen.

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Azshanara [2006-08-17 23:55:33 +0000 UTC]

I love your dragon pictures. The light coming up from the bottom is so unique! And yea, that dragon is just too big.

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faile35 In reply to Azshanara [2006-08-18 00:14:04 +0000 UTC]

Thanks again! Glad you see things like I do. --Faile35

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psychoghost [2006-08-13 19:10:12 +0000 UTC]

I'm gone from DA for two weeks and you put this (and Kracken) up. WOW!!!! IF you produce work like this every time I leave I should leave more often. Wait a minute - you always produce work this spectacular so I think I'll stick around to see it sooner.
I love the detail on both the front and back neck plates they are extremely well done (the back neck plates look so realistic (something that could exist) and are so detailed).
Again just wow!!!

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psychoghost In reply to psychoghost [2006-08-14 13:58:02 +0000 UTC]

I hope you shout it from the roof tops when you get the eBay thing working (hopefully that would penetrate my usual dazed grad-student state) so that I can get a copy.
You do very well with "Big, Bad and Evil" - I mean the thought that comes to mind when I think of this piece is "MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

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faile35 In reply to psychoghost [2006-08-13 22:06:40 +0000 UTC]

Well, thank you! I aim to please. Check the copyright dates on the images and you'll find that I actually did these two years ago. Seven years ago, actually. I have a slew of black and white images, most are this quality, while others are not, but all were done over the past 15 years. I am just posting them here, a few at a time, while I prepare to sell a book with most of the ink drawings ($10 plus shipping and handling on eBay--it's almost set up). The back/neck plates actually took some planning to get right, so I'm glad you like how they turned out. Somehow, my creative mind just flows when I think "Big, Bad, and Evil." --Faile35

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extremendousness [2006-08-09 21:43:19 +0000 UTC]

aha! yes! thankyou, the bad guy DOES need to win sometimes. i have just finished watching the new War of always wins. the ending, with the kid suddenly coming back to life? SOOOO cheesy.
and now i've turned this comment into a vessel of evil complaining!
but very nice concept, i love it

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faile35 In reply to extremendousness [2006-08-10 01:41:16 +0000 UTC]

Quite true. One of my favorite books is "Lord of the Flies," in which the bad guys most definitely win, although Ralph survives to the end. I hope I didn't just give everything away if you haven't read it. Michael Moorcock's "Elric of Melnibone" story has a similar ending. The "Twins" series of the Dragonlance books does, too--I liked that trilogy much more than the first one. I didn't see the new War of the Worlds--the old version had such a corny ending for me that I never gave the new one a chance... Thanks for loving this, though, and telling me about it! --Faile35

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extremendousness In reply to faile35 [2006-08-10 02:05:14 +0000 UTC]

the movie would've been quite good (well, as good as something can possibly be with tom cruise in it) but when they brought back a kid that really should've died it was like some bigshot ceo that was funding the movie came and said "we can't have a KID die goddamit! the kids NEVER die in action flicks! how dare you challenge the stereotyped way of big hollywood movies!"
the new one would've been a lot better than the first in my opinion. i didn't even get to the end in the first one, those cheesy, cardboard aliens and the spaceships with little strings holding it up did it for me

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faile35 In reply to extremendousness [2006-08-10 02:11:06 +0000 UTC]

My issue was how the Earthlings win in the end. The final quote, after cold or flu germs do the aliens in, goes something like, "In the end, they were defeated by the smallest things, which God, in His infinite wisdom, saw fit to create..." What, so God had it in for the Martians and created bacteria and viruses just so we'd be able to fight off an alien invasion? Wouldn't the God of Earth also be the God of Mars? Maybe He's trying to teach the damn atheistic Martians a lesson?

These were the thoughts going through my head after the end of the movie, and I decided that it just wasn't worth it, regardless of the limited special effects. --Faile35

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extremendousness In reply to faile35 [2006-08-10 02:28:39 +0000 UTC]

those damn atheistic martians!
i think they might've redone that phrase. or maybe they didn't. i honestly don't remember, if it was still there, it didn't irk me enough to remember it clearly.
but that was funny

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faile35 In reply to extremendousness [2006-08-10 04:28:39 +0000 UTC]

I aim to please. Actually, the best War of the Worlds story I recall having seen was one in which the radio program broadcast a dramatization of the H.G. Wells story and a small town thought it was really happening. As I recall, a few freak occurences and mishaps really got these bumpkins thinking the country really was under alien attack, and they were running all around, seeing aliens in the shadows and each other, and general mayhem ensued. That one was interesting. --Faile35

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freya50 [2006-08-09 20:49:22 +0000 UTC]

I've never commented on this one before, but I should. This is a great example of how good you are at using darkness to give an ominous feeling. It probably goes back to that portencious side of your personality. You are the master of this. Good job. U Bob

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faile35 In reply to freya50 [2006-08-10 01:43:32 +0000 UTC]

Thank you. I've always aspired to the rank of "Master of Darkness." My mother will be so proud to know I've arrived... Actually, I'm amazed when something that is "not darkness" shows up on the stage of my mind. With so much darkness springing out, I guess it ought to give me some skills in expressing it. --Faile35

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Kaytara [2006-08-01 12:25:22 +0000 UTC]

Wonderful. I love the murky darkness and the sheer size of the dragon. As for the magician and swordsman.... Why, this is just the standard fantasy situation.... ^^ Brings back feelings of nostalgia... Memories of Might & Magic and Wizardry....

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faile35 In reply to Kaytara [2006-08-01 16:37:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! My wife played M&M VI, VII, and VIII and I can still hear the sound effects of the spells, clanging weaponry, and grunts of pain in the back of my mind (she played while I drew for hours). Glad you like it. --Faile35

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Kaytara In reply to faile35 [2006-08-01 16:51:41 +0000 UTC]

I forgot to add: Smart wife. ^^ RPG games are something I approve of.... I can hardly describe the vast impact on my personality caused by the fact that BOTH my parents played rpg games with me when I was little. (Well, they did the playing, while I just sat beside them and squealed 'Get him, Dad! Get him!' or 'Mommy! He's got no manna left!' ) ^^'

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faile35 In reply to Kaytara [2006-08-01 17:05:05 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, they've played a pretty big role here, too. My boys all play PS2 and PC games of many flavors, but they have a soft spot for RPGs. My wife kind of peaked at the Might and Magic series, and has sunk into the insanity of Zooma and Rollercoaster Tycoon now... Actually the Tycoon games are pretty cool--we are a family of strategist-planners as well--but Zooma just makes me nervous and look for some kind of weapon to hit my head with... --Faile35

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Kaytara In reply to faile35 [2006-08-01 16:47:26 +0000 UTC]

'Wizard's Eye spell!'

*spell noise*
*A-HA!*

^^' It's the one I remember most vividly...

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faile35 In reply to Kaytara [2006-08-01 16:53:39 +0000 UTC]

Yep. I remember that one, too. It sounded like cars going through a tunnel, heard through your hands which are lightly bopping your ears to make it reverberate. I used to do that a lot when I was a kid. Can't hear a dang thing now... --Faile35

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dashinvaine [2006-08-01 10:34:41 +0000 UTC]

They need to call in the muppet commandos for backup.

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faile35 In reply to dashinvaine [2006-08-01 16:38:51 +0000 UTC]

*insert Mission: Impossible theme here* That's great, Dash. --Faile35

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Cherille [2006-08-01 09:49:42 +0000 UTC]

Woooaaah!!! I love this one!!!!

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faile35 In reply to Cherille [2006-08-01 16:47:01 +0000 UTC]

And I'm glad you do! Thanks. --Faile35

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Cherille In reply to faile35 [2006-08-01 17:58:06 +0000 UTC]

Hehe!!! Yer welcome!!!

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Roae [2006-08-01 07:21:22 +0000 UTC]

Heck yes! The bad guy needs to win for once! I mean, come on, with that "good guy always wins" rule, this caped warrior could hold up a toothpick and the dragon would keel over. But not this time! Anyway, this is awesome. I love the lighting in the pic especially. Lighting from below is more original... And the dragon looks sooo dark and evil! (I can see the pen strokes, by the way.) And so huge! Really, the two pathetic little humans don't stand a chance. I like the light around the wizard's staff, though. And the warrior does look like he's backing up... right off the edge. Oh, the detail in the splashing lava looks awesome, too.

... Um... One piece of constructive criticism... The dragon's wings look a bit odd. You can't really tell what they're attached to... If anything, it looks like they're attached to the dragon's neck. And they go back at a different angle from the rest of his body, as far as I can tell. (That is a he, right? )

But it's still awesome! And going on my favorites list. A lot of it has to do with the bad guy winning, but still... Awesome job, as per usual!

By the way, if you think you're at all good at writing stories, maybe you could write one based on this...?

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faile35 In reply to Roae [2006-08-01 07:46:37 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! For all of it. What a fun comment to read! I can see your point about the wings, although in my mind I can see what they're hooked onto and it seems right still--the dragon's back is arched behind its head and moves back toward the far wall (or whatever), but I shorted it to draw the attention right to the front plane where the size difference is (dramatic effect vs realism you might say). It probably wouldn't have been too much to adjust the angle of the wings or show a hint of thicker body behind it, though, to avoid the dilemma you've pointed out.

Thank you for the compliments, too.

As far as the dragon's gender goes, my answer is: "He" or "she," anything that big and mean can be whatever it wants to be... (I think I have referred to the dragon as a "he" in the past...) --Faile35

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Roae In reply to faile35 [2006-08-03 03:26:05 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome! And thanks. I try. Hm, the dramatic effect worked. I really didn't notice the thing with the wings for a while, so it's not bad.

You're welcome again. ^^

True, true...

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EclipseSiren [2006-08-01 06:09:04 +0000 UTC]

lol is the warrior backing up slowly? Understandable.... I would too.

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faile35 In reply to EclipseSiren [2006-08-01 06:12:49 +0000 UTC]

I think he's soiling his breeches... --Faile35

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EclipseSiren In reply to faile35 [2006-08-01 06:20:45 +0000 UTC]

eewww maybe the warrior will manage to get away then. Even a dragon can be picky about what he eats i think. *gulps down Wizard, sniffs warrior, decides hes not hungry anymore*

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faile35 In reply to EclipseSiren [2006-08-01 06:25:18 +0000 UTC]

Maybe the dragon will just flick the guy into the lake like a bogie and fry him. Few problems can't be solved by incineration... --Faile35

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