Yet another amfipteryx genus, the waveskimmers are adapted for life lived almost entirely on the wing, or underwater.

Sorry this one’s kinda subpar; the composition makes me cringe. I’ve been, ah, “enjoying” the aftermath of mild food poisoning today. Even mild, it’s still not particularly pleasant, and I’m feeling pretty run down.

Fun with pencils!

This page from my sketchbook is less about character design and more about playing around.

This small water monitor has distinctive hornlike growths on its lower jaw, from which it derives its common name. Males sport much more pronounced horns, which grow and twist ornately throughout the creature’s life. In males these horns are delicate, used only for display during mating season. The much larger females (not pictured) have shorter, sturdy jaw horns which project downward and forward somewhat, making them ideal for fighting and for digging in riverbeds for burrowing prey. Females are highly aggressive and defend their territory and harem of male monitors zealously during breeding season.

Monitors, like bullroarers, are land drakes rather than true dragons. Monitors as a group take their name from their resemblance to the much smaller monitor lizard.

Another purely avian dragon on the amfipteryx body plan, this one with a unique method of flight – although if you’re familiar with The Flight of Dragons (the book or the movie of the same name) you’ll have seen it before.

A biochemical reaction in chambers connected to the amfipteryx’s extended lung sacs produces a buoyant gas mix, distending the creature’s body and producing the characteristic ballooned silhouette. This particular species is a fishing breed, and begins its hunting dive into the water from an aerial start by expelling all of its stored gas…causing it to drop like a stone.

The head is basically similar to that of a specific dinosaur – Carnotaurus sastrei.

I was doing pretty well to start off, but lost steam quickly – I’m terribly, horribly tired – so everything from the collarbones down is pretty phoned-in. This was drawn freehand in ink with no pencils beforehand.

Sleep now, or forever holed yore peas. Daisy, Daisy…give me your answer…doooo…..harblglarjarbgarblarzzZzZzzzzzZzzz….

That concludes the “seven lucky gods on the mountain” series. You may have noticed a couple of things – each dragon-god is named for some form of the mineral chalcedony. Also, the number of eyes on each dragon corresponds to its place in the sequence.

This series was a fun exercise in character design, and I’d say odds are good you’ll see more sets like this in the future.