I was recently given the opportunity to work on two art pieces for a couple of great little guys. :”) Both commissioned art pieces feature something they’re extremely fond of that feature dragons, so I decided to go with that theme. Both pieces were painted in Sketchbook Pro, with a little Photoshop thrown in, using a Huion Kamvas 12 Pro pen display, and both have been printed on stretched canvas so they can be hung and admired by both younglings. 
Fighting the Dragon
The first is Minecraft-themed scene, I’ve titled Fighting the Dragon, where the main character Steve faces off against the Ender Dragon in combat within a forest clearing. The dragon, his eyes and mouth glowing with fiery purple magic snarls angrily at the brave warrior, who courageously squares up to his enemy wielding a glowing Diamond sword and a tall wooden shield, his red cape flowing behind him.
Aside from simply being a game-themed scene, I wanted this piece to inspire courage and bravery in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Minecraft Steve has to start from scratch, and has to work and persevere through many hurdles to build himself up into a character formidable enough to be able to fight the Dragon at the The End of the world. It’s a long and hard journey but one that is worthwhile and could lead to greatness. I hope my young friend finds it as inspirational as I do.
Now, of course any true Minecrafter will point out that this scene could never happen in the vanilla game, since the Ender Dragon appears only in The End biome, but I’m pulling out my Creative License card and slamming it down on the table with my best “I can do what I want in my paintings” face. 
This was fun to work on and gave me the opportunity to use some very fun brushes and apply some interesting techniques to get the desired effects. Sketchbook is a fantastic application that features a bunch of awesome tools to work with, which made working on this extremely enjoyable, especially with a display tablet!
An Awesome Friendship
The second piece was for the younger of the two boys, and he’s reportedly a big fan of Pixar’s How To Train Your Dragon movies. So of course I had to pick an epic but poignant scene to work with.
This scene features both Hiccup and Toothless posing on the peak of a tall mountain at dusk; both on top of the entire world and enjoying life.
I really liked this scene because it summed up their friendship and the first movie perfectly. Their disabilities, which they helped each other overcome, are in plain view but did not stop them in any way from reaching these great heights, and overcoming huge obstacles to arrive at a point where they can just enjoy the view, bask in the warmth of the sun, and enjoy each other’s company. It is both poignant and triumphant, warm and happy and a fantastic piece to hang up and by which to be inspired daily.
This piece was far more challenging and required a lot of creative experimentation with tools, technique and brushes to get the textures and depth to look right, but I’m quite pleased with the result.
I am extremely grateful to have been given the opportunity to work on these and I truly hope the two younglings as pleased with the result as I am. :”)
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