Tonight’s great artwork comes from Chilean professional artist Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias, posting as Genzoman, and this first piece is called The Dragon.

At first I was just drawn in by Gonzalo’s epic art style, and after browsing his gallery, I found he’s drawn many more dragons as well, some of which I’ll share below.  But what really got me was that, on many of the deviantart pages displaying his awesome dragons, he also includes some background on the creature itself, with what he calls a wikiattack. 🙂

Take The Dragon above, for instance.  On its page, Gonzalo launches into an interesting explanation about how the dragon from Beowulf “helps to create the archetype for the modern occidental dragon” and explains a bit of the story and background of the ancient tale.

On the page for the next piece, titled Ryujin Dragon God, Gonzalo writes about the Japanese water god this painting is based on and its Shinto connection.

And one more dragon by Gonzalo called Shenglong — yes, the dragon from DragonBall and DragonBall Z — where he talks about his love of the show, as well as the dragon from Chinese myth that this dragon is based on.

Great, epic art, and a bit of a history lesson on the side — an artist after my own heart, it would seem!  I hope you have a chance to check out Gonzalo’s pages for yourself, and the rest of his gallery as well.  Goodnight, stay creative!

Image credits:
The Dragon by Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias 
Ryujin Dragon God by Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias
Shenglong by Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias