This dragon was half of a pair of drawings I did, the other of which I featured at the beginning of the week. However, this one took considerably longer to do, and shows a greater sophistication in playing with the figure/ground relationship. (That's artspeak for ‘foreground and background, btw, if it wasn't obvious.)

in progress. microns on paper, possible nib and india ink as well, roughly 9x12 Pretty sure it was 100lb hot press. Shot with my oneplus phone, 7aug2020. Click for sharper, full size versions.

Even more than the rejiquar drawing, this one is a good example of horror vacui—the fear of empty space. (Again, artspeak snobbery dissing^[1] folk artists’ common preference for all-over pattern.) Thus in order to distinguish the figure from the ground, I had to make the former mostly empty, reversing the usual practice of the subject being coloured in and the background blank.

fini. brush pen? crow quill and ink? & microns on paper, roughly 9x12; shot 10aug20, Lumix LX100, cropped and adjusted in gimp.

Where the greater sophistication comes in is using faint lines to fill the front wing, which helps to distinguish it from the rear wing. The elaborate florals verging into patterns, both in the ground and foreground (the wing) which become themselves figures, makes the drawing ever so slightly a meta-playground, if you will.

Not certain my fooling around works (the dragon's face is, once again, overworked, siiiighhh) and it's certainly not groundbreaking, but I enjoyed making all those marks...

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.