🐲Behold! The Spiny Mantis, Butterfly Dragon!

Well one thing to another and well…I guess I’ve fell down the hybrid dragon design wyrm hole. This time it's dragon meets mantis!

It started with this pretty pattern from the How to draw patterns coloring book.

I couldn’t help myself. I had to apply it to something! So off I went on an adventure to put to paper a delicate butterfly dragon. So I started with lookup up bug references.

Enter the Spiny and Orchid mantises. Just check out their alien features! Rad.

And so, I dove into warm-up studies. These were a challenge! The anatomy is different from anything I’ve typically drawn. The legs alone are a geometry test.

After my wrestle with exoskeletons, I dove into some dragon thumbnails.

I sketched the one that felt right in my little square sketchbook.

A little ink!

And finally, I got to do what I’ve been dying to do. Drown it in marker!

And now, we add the sparkly pattern bits! I really love how the wings came out on this.

Next week we’ll be off to Columbus, OH for the annual Origin’s Game Fair booth #1842! If you happen to be in that neck of the woods and stop by with your coupon book. We’ll have some Wizard Birds on offer for Pin Bazaar!

Now, back to the drawing board—literally. (Ryan’s demanding a hummingbird-dragon next. Pray for me.)

Arielle + Ryan