Smaug

A stunning digital rendition of the great dragon of the Hobbit by J.R.R.Tolkien, *Praxiteles truly does Smaug justice. With the careful shading on the neck and abdomen of Smaug, we can almost see overlapping scales on the body. The detail on the head and the flaps on the sides provide a lot of character for Smaug, and the almost see-through membranes on Smaug's wings are so detailed, viewers can even see the veins that carry blood to his wings!! *Praxiteles also does a beautiful job of giving viewers a taste of just how old Smaug is, due to the tears and tatters in the wings. While the image might seem a little overpowering because of many colors are variant shades of each other, the artist makes up for this with bringing small changes in color (the water reflecting the city of Dale, the sun in the upper left, and the river) to ease some of the red/brown tones of this picture. Overall, in my opinion, *Praxiteles has done a beautiful job with this digital painting of Smaug.