Bob's ART du Jour

Hi, I'm Bob Eggleton and this is my painting and "life in general blog" but mostly paintings. Usually they're for sale. Anyway, if you like something contact me at zillabob@cox.net and ENJOY!!

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Location: New England, United States

I am a Hugo award-winning fantasy/SF artist who works on both publishing projects and film concept work(such as Jimmy Neutron and most recently, The Ant Bully) but I have a passion for landscape work, small paintings and exploring the properties of paint. This blog will mostly showcase my "painting-for-the-day" as kind of a personal voyage. I'll also be inserting sketches,photos and ideas of projects I am working on, that I can, when I can, so look for those every so often(usually as paint is drying!)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Dragons of London....

Well, Wednesday is Sketch Day. Time for some sketch book drawings to show you what I've done as ideas. These two dragon sketches I did in London last Fall. And where better to draw them? London is a city guarded by dragons-four to be exact, that mark the "City of London" which is sort of an area within the actual city we know as London. The above dragon I did sitting in a little French cafe near Upper St Martin's Lane. Nothing more international and bohemian feeling than sipping a Cappucino, listening to Radio One's "80's Flashback Hour" and drawing a dragon- as people walk by. Anyway, I based the composition on an old etching I bought at a small print shop, and I liked the overall arrangement of the landscape, I just reworked it to include a wizard and some kind of water dragon. I like scale so hence the small figure.
Apollo and The Python

Still in London there are more dragons to be found. In the Tate Gallery, which is home to many J.M.W. Turners, there is one painting called "Apollo and The Python" It shows Apollo and a python which is guarded by a massive, flame snorting dragon. The painting is incredible and, shows exactly how "Fantasy Art" has been with us for ages. The dragon is wounded, mortally and is collapsing into an abyss after a large log was apparently dropped on it. This is the one Turner that seems to not be available as a print, postcard or in a book!!! I was so taken with it I quickly sketched the general idea down as fast as I could. Apollo would be off to the left. The dragon is also quite dark, and subtle, so it takes often a second look. What draws us in is the dragon's wounded tail-an open, fleshy raw gash(left of the picture). If you ever go to London, know that dragons lurk there....more paintings soon!

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting sketches. I love to see the thought process and the fast quality of the line work! As you are working out form are you also composing with lights and darks?
J.R.

12:01 AM  
Blogger Bob Eggleton (Zillabob) said...

Basically, yes. I'm sort of seeing it in it's very basic breakdowns of darks and lights. Then I dial color into it.

11:13 PM  

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