‘A Bear-Dragon’ - Saturday morning dressing-up and sketching
My son turns three this year, and as is often said of young children, he is a constant source of inspiration and entertainment. This image was sketched from life one Saturday morning, when he had demanded to wear his bear hood dressing gown over the top of the dragon costume he was already sporting. Animal costumes of this kind never fail to remind me of Max in ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. When my son struck this pose, lounging casually against an old chair, I grabbed a pencil and worked fast to create a sketch that I could develop later.
That evening I inked and coloured the piece, using a photo for colour reference. I enjoyed the challenge of suggesting different textures and materials, the felt of the dragon, the synthetic fur of the dressing gown, the bright orange plastic of the bin lorry tucked beneath the chair.