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arvalis — Svara
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#cat #dragon #drake #creaturedesign #finalfantasy #kaiju #nidoking #sabretooth #sabretoothtiger #smilodon #wyvern
Published: 2017-02-18 18:32:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 84420; Favourites: 4069; Downloads: 878
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Description
Last year I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to work on a dragon book for Scholastic by way of Becker&Mayer Books. I got to take a crack at designing 16 different mythical dragons from all over the world for a book called Sink Your Teeth Into Dragons.Boy this guy was a tricky one to design. The Svara has been historically described as a great, yellow dragon with giant ears, giant fangs, and a big horn on its head. As you might think, thats a lot to shove into one head. Ultimately I think I landed on a pretty cool design. Also the yellow color let me try a yellow purple complementary color palette. Let me know in the comments if there's any other historical dragon myths you'd want to see and maybe I can post that one next.
Others from this Project
Photoshop CC: 10 hours
Illustration©Becker&Mayer Books
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Comments: 169
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Cool, cool, cool, cool!
This is gold! (and not only cuz the dragon is gold xd)
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You should do Saphira blue dragon blue eyes, Gleadr golden dragon yellow eyes, Thorn red dragon red eyes, Firnen green dragon with green eyes, and Shruikan black dragon black eyes, from Eragon! I'm sure since you did this good on that dragon you would do an even better job on those dragons!
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I know this isn't historical, but you should do Drogon from Game of Thrones.
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This is such simple composition and lighting... idk why I enjoy looking at it so much...wonderful job
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no © copyright on your fabulous work ? which mean, I am allow to use it in a youtube video ?
I would give the link for your deviant art account, of course.
I have some idea of musique, and your epic monsters would be good to put a picture on my music. Nothing is done, just a project.
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I very much so intend on picking up this book, having already picked up Dinosaurs vs. Beasts at a book fair (I would've picked up this book too, but I didn't have enough with me at the time). The only dragons I can think of that were sadly left out of this book are the Quetzalcoatl, Leviathan, Amphithere, Drake and Basilisk.
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Any dragon myths I want to see, definitely the red Welsh dragon vs. the white Saxon dragon.
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that is one awesome looking dragon!!!
the large center horn is interesting in that it suggests that the dragon fights physically against a larger foe
perhaps dragons of this type fight each other for dominance?
great picture!
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Holy, epically magnificent! This Majestic Svara is stunning and The Castle looks incredible! The designs, wings, ears, horns, tail, claws, eyes, teeth, scales, spikes, expression, pose, sky, clouds, tower, arches, mist, shadows, sunlight, rays, shadows, symbols, anatomy, dust, structure, action, gleam, glow, haze, movement, flow, effects, realisticness, perspective, atmosphere, textures, hues, concept, composition, uniqueness, lighting, colors, style, and other details are also outstanding! Amazingly radical work!
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I recall at least one native american dragon... or two if we count the jersey devil depending on design.
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i would really love to see an interpretation of the jabbawock, i know its a wyvern and not a dragon but its still very interesting and i would love to see it done by you
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Wyverns are dragons though
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they are a sub species i guess, but i wouldnt say they are "true dragons"
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Wyverns dont have forlegs though. They only have have wing arms!
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Pretty sure a jabbawock has no forelimbs
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No, they are absolutely dragons. Think of dragons as a clade and wyverns can be an order, suborder, or family within said clade.
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I agree though! they certanly are dragons!
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I can't seem to find this creature anywhere. Where's it from?
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I know it is not a dragon per say, but I think you would like trying Jormungandr. He is from norse mythology.
It is really the closest thing to a dragon we have from where I come from and it is gigantic. Like, laying aroung the earth gigantic.
He is said to have the body of a serpent and an ox like head. he has been drawn both with and without front legs.
Could be cool?
Can't wait to see what you come up with next! Whatever it is I know it will be awesome!
-Cat
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In Norse Mythology there is an actual dragon, Nidhogg the Corpse-Eater, he lies beneath Yggdrasil, gnawing at its roots.
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Don't know where you got that from, maybe Norway, Sweden and Danmark have differences?
In Norway Nidhogg is kinda the same as Jormundgandr. He is a Orm witch translate to snake in English. Jormundgandr is also called a snake like creature so they are similar. Neither one flies though.
Just laying around trying to be bad
- Cat
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Interesting. In all the Norse Mythology-inspired literature I've read, Nidhogg is always referred to as a dragon.
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In some texts Jormundgandr and Nidhogg are two seperate beings, Jormundgandr circles around the Midgard Ocean and Nidhogg bites at the roots of Yggdrasil.
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I've always heard of them as separate creatures.
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I didn't mean that they where the same! Sorry if I wrote wrong
I meant that both of them are called snakes.
Jormundgandr is one of the three "children" Loki had with Angerboda and Nidhogg is not that.
What I was trying to say was that none of them are called Dragons in the Norwegian texts. They are called Orm witch means snake. We never had the word for dragon when we had Norse here.
But maybe thing where a bit different with Swedish and Danish Norse mythology, I don't know about them.
-Cat
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I dunno if this helps, but Wikipedia's page on Nidhogg - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%AD&… has a 17th century Icelandic illustration of him that depicts him as a two-legged dragon.
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This is the last comment. I swear! I'm just writing as I find things, Sorry....
But the viking period was from 793 to 1066 so art that has been drawn after that isn't really a 100%.
I'm also no expert in Norse, but being Norwegian means having it five or six years as a chapter or two in History and Norwegian.
-Cat
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I'm jealous. The only way I can learn about Nordic history and culture is through mythology and history books and websites (of questionable accuracy) like Wikipedia. I learned a bit about the Vikings in high-school history, but only from the perspective of the Anglo-Saxons.
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I will admit it was one of the funniest things we had in history. But in my twelfth year with schooling and again in the thirteenth I had to translate some Norse texts they where short, but.... Not as fun...
Don't think we have the same school system so I wrote it like that. Started first grade at six and twelfth and thirteenth is 17 and 18. 
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Heh. I had to do that in university for a course on Old English.
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I Think the closest thing to a dragon we have is actually Fåvne. I'm not sure if it's right in relation to the old text, but on the wiki it says: er en voldsom drage eller slange which means a really big Dragon or Snake. But since they say OR snake, makes me think that in the original text he is said to be a snake like creature.
The text on wiki is also related to a opera of Wagner so they may have called him a dragon in the opera and not the original text. Richard Wagner was also German... He may have called Fåvne a dragon in his play for the same reason they translate it in english.
I must say I have never used so much of what I learned in fourth to six grade so much ever! :-D
-Cat
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I think it is actually a translation thing. Witch is kinda funny.
We have two words for snake in Norway the common SLANGE and the older one that is not really used that much ORM. On the Norwegian Wiki it does not say anything about either Nidhogg or anything else being a dragon.
Our Norwigan word for Dragon is DRAGE witch is what makes me think that we didn't have the word back in the day and while the illustrations may lead people to think dragon they where never called it. In the original text he is not really described as anything other than a big snake/ORM. I don't even think that they mention him having legs, but they do draw him with it some times. I think it is because then it does not just look like a big snake.
I never knew that other languages called them anything other than Serpent like creatures or something close to ORM. It is really interesting to know the changes that has happened to the texts.
-Cat
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Hmm. I'm no Norse cultural expert, but in every piece of Norse mythology-inspired fiction I've come across I've only ever heard him described as a dragon.
Speaking of dragons, I wonder whether Fáfnir from the Völsunga Saga and the Nibelungenlied is referred to as a drange or an orm in his monstrous form?
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I did a search on when Norway got the word Dragon. Is it weird I think this is fun? maybe...
But anyway, It said that we got the word in the middle ages around when Norway was made christen which means we did not have the word when the original texts where written. We where not allowed believing in Norse when we where made christen so anyone calling any creature a dragon must have come later.
But when everybody else was translating and seeing the drawings they would have had the word which may be why they use it inn other languages.
-Cat
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