Beast of the Barrows

(UPDATED 2/1/2014 after a retouch on the lighting and contrast... it seemed like too many things were fighting for attention before.)

The full size is large enough for most desktops! Though, I prefer low key wallpapers myself.

Anyway, I'm continuing to figure out this painting thing. This one started as a thumbnail of some shapes composed together, and it could've been fine just as scenery, but for my upcoming portfolio I wanted to have some illustrated life in there as well.  This particular dragon/wyvern hybrid came about after trying to use an image of a dragon in flight from google images as an anatomy reference... suddenly I got the urge to redraw it with the forelegs as the wings, downswept, and then the legs had to change, and so did the tail, until I basically ended up drawing my own... which I'm much happier with just because I feel weird using others' art as reference..