It’s a short week, so with no further ado please let me introduce you to Australian professional artist John Stone, a freelance illustrator and concept artist, and this first piece above called Dawn Chaser.  He writes, “Wandering the eternal thermal winds of the dawn sun, chasing the light, never letting it out of it her sight.”  I really like the design of this space dragon — it makes sense that a perpetually flying (weightless? swimming?) creature wouldn’t need back legs, right?  And it’s not alone either — if you look close, you can see more of them in the background!

John has created artwork for lots of game companies, and currently designs for Petersen Games, Skymarch Entertainment, and Warlord Games.  You can find examples in his awesome gallery, but for now, let’s take a look at another personal piece called Stormfire Dragon.  A fan of his asked how he learned how to draw the perspective so well, and John counseled that “Studying real life references is the best way to learn, then incorporate that into the more fantastical.”  Good advice!

Then finally, here is Guardian of the Moon, the only piece he kept to himself from a series of Guardian Dragons he created and then sold to Warlord Games.  I’m a sucker for a dragon and moon image of course, so I love this one the best, but you can also check out his Guardian of the Deep, Guardian of the Forest, and Guardian of the Sun (because of course they’re all epic).

I also discovered that the game companies John works for make some pretty interesting games!  There’s Warlord’s Doctor Who Exterminate! The Miniatures Game, Petersen’s Cthulhu Mythos Pathfinder-compatible RPG guide, and Skymarch’s Crystals of Fate mobile/PC CCG, where you’ll find lots of John’s artwork, like Fire Dragon and Storm Dragon, just to name a few.  Check out any and all of them if you’re looking for something new!

Be sure to check out more of John’s work in his gallery, and you can follow him on Facebook, Artstation, Instagram, and watch videos of him speedpainting on his YouTube Channel.

All right, the point of short weeks is to try to get my own writing done while not neglecting you, my dear readers, so I hope you’ll come back next week for a real Writing Thoughts post!

But for now, I bid you adieu — thank you as always for reading, take care, and stay creative!

Image credits:
All artwork in this post is by John Stone.
Dawn Chaser, Stormfire Dragon, and Guardian of the Moon