This is Clandestine by Singaporean professional artist Nicola Hwang, posting as Fairygodflea.  You have to click in to see the entire image and what the dragon is hiding from!  This is the first of series and the artist captions it, “Ah yes, the perils of dating someone not of your class… Or species.”  This piece won a well-deserved Daily Deviation credit back in 2011.

I’m not sure how I feel about the genre of art where the usual princess/dragon trope is turned on its head to where the princess is dating the dragon, but Nicola’s art is so expressive and brilliant, I found myself giving the ship a chance!  Here’s the second piece, called Red Ribbons, showing the pair just hanging out in a “happy interlude.”

And then the last (so far) in this series, here is Paper Planes, showing the dragon and the princess “Together!  Burning stuff!”  Apparently they’ll live happily ever after… 🙂  I think this piece would be perfect for desktop wallpaper.

Nicola has so much wonderful art, and I couldn’t resist this next piece called Hobbit Wisdom.  Her version of Martin Freeman as Bilbo is great, and that babySmaug is so cute!  Of course, don’t tell him that… Who’s a very fierce dragon, Smaug?  You are!  Yes you are!  😉

And then I was so happy to see that Nicola also illustrated one of my other favorite fandoms, starring Martin Freeman as Watson and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock in this piece called I do.  Created in response to a fan of Nicola’s asking her to be their Watson and showing a super cute scene of happy domestic life.  As another fan commented, “I am so very Sherlocked.”  🙂

Then we turn to yet another fandom, and this one is relevant to the week!  The latest Star Wars installment The Last Jedi opens this weekend, and even though I procrastinated buying our tickets, I managed to get us into a show on Sunday! I’m really excited, even though I’m not the most die-hard Star Wars fan myself.

Nicola writes that she was a part of an art show in December 2015 at the Los Angeles-based Pop Secret Gallery called “12 Days of Star Wars,” and she posted three sneak peaks of her work.  There’s Luke Skywalker and his bantha, Han Solo and Chewbacca, and Princess Leia taking out Jabba the Hut because, as Nicola puts it, she is the “most kickbutt Disney Princess EVER!” 🙂  Unfortunately I didn’t find the full pieces in her gallery, but these are super cute anyway!

Then of COURSE I’m going to share Nicola’s adorable cat study called Catscratch, “just a buncha quick kitteh sketches [she] did a while back.”  It astounds me how these amazing artists can be so nonchalant about their work, like “oh I just slapped some lines on paper” — it’s magical how those lines come together to create something like these impressively expressive cats!  Love love love!

So then there is this next piece that I have some complicated emotions about.  Called Sky Chase, it’s a “kite cat and mouse… the airborne version of Tom and Jerry.”  So cute, but of course, seeing this kite reminds me of my Kite, one of the main characters of my novel Finding Dragons, and then I remember I’m blogging and not novelling… *sigh*

But then I found this last piece in Nicola’s gallery, and it just made me feel worlds better.  This is called My Dream, and I’ll let Nicola herself explain it below.

Someone asked me the other day about my aspirations and I told her very honestly about them. She gave me the most patronizing look, patted me on the shoulder and said “Oh honey, that dream is way too big for you…”

Well, sure.
It’s a big dream, it’s a crazy dream and it’s a fantastical dream.
But it’s MY dream, and I’m never letting go.

My novel and series is going to get written, mark my words.  It might not be for years yet, but that’s MY dream, and I’ll never let it go.

I even found an online workshop called Finish Your Novel taking place January at The Loft literary center, a wonderful resource here in the Twin Cities, that I might just ask for from my husband Santa for Christmas… maybe that’ll spark something again?

All right, that’s it for me this week.  There were so many more great works in Nicola’s deviantart gallery that I couldn’t share, so be sure to check them out, including this honorable mention called Babeh dragon that is super cute, but just not the right dimensions for my blog format.  You can also find her on Tumblr at The Art of Nicola Hwang, and follow her on Facebook.

I hope everyone is having a festive holiday season!  Thanks as always for reading, take care, and stay creative!

Image credits:
All artwork in this post is by Nicola Hwang, posting as Fairygodflea.
Clandestine, Red Ribbons, Paper Planes, Hobbit Wisdom, I do, 12 Days of Star Wars Luke sneak peak, 12 Days of Star Wars Han sneak peak, 12 Days of Star Wars Leia sneak peak, Catscratch, Sky Chase, and My Dream