Saint George and the Dragon

One of a series of illustrations done for a Fantasy RPG.

The 'valiant-hero-versus-big-evil-reptile' archetype is an ancient and endlessly popular one, finding miriad incarnations in human mythology; Beowulf, Sigurd and Fafnir, Marduk and Tiamat, Michael the Archangel and Satan in dragon form, ect. most of these stories are so close that they could stand in for eachother with little difficulty (and have at various times) in all cases you've got rational, bold, apollonian man standing up to and vanquishing the dark, ancient, primeval, destructive, chaotic forces. It's easy to see why that would be such a popular, recurring theme in humanity's long ramp up from the caveman days. Saint George is probably the best known iteration of the archetype; born in Palestine in the late 200's, his legendary visage as the armored champion slaying the beast underfoot became (along with Saint Michael, with whom he is often completely interchangeable) one of the major subjects of Medieval and Renaissance art, and probably the first name people associate with fluted gothic armor and scaly foes.

This was actually the first draft of what became this turnermohan.deviantart.com/art… What in the hell possessed me to go back in and try and redo the knight and change the color scheme? A bad decision made at the long end of a very long contract, wanting everything to be perfect. They've both got their good points and bad (I was very pleased with that defined 'welding torch look' the dragonfire has in the other version) but in hindsight I probably should have just left well enough alone. At least I had the good sense to take pictures along the way.

Acrylic on 12" x 16" canvas

see also: Earendil In Bronze