Bernard finds Dread Full

Bernard, a dog, part of a mountain rescue team has been tasked with finding dragons. He thinks he has found a dragon but is surprised that he has found a creature that doesn’t look a lot like the other dragons he has met.

Bernard and Dread Full are two new characters in the third and last of the Prince and Dragon books. I am busy painting all the 58 paintings that will accompany the story. Because they are new characters I had to find colours that could be mixed from the limited pallet I have chosen for my illustrations. I decided to make it easy so the two witch-spelled dragons who have been turned into other creatures have similar colours to the real dragons. Bernard, of course, had to be patches of brown and white.

I have 13 paintings done and 45 to go. After the struggle of illustrating the first two book, I am finding I have much more confidence in my abilities to solve the problems of how to paint unusual scenes and bring the characters’ poses and body language alive.

I was pleased with how this one turned out as I tend to write without thinking forward to how on earth am I going to illustrate that scene! There’s a bit of re-writing when I simply can’t get the drawing to work. Handy being the writer as well as illustrator.

I hope you enjoy the expression of puzzlement on Bernard face and the look of terror on Dread Fulls.