The Last Gryphon Rider

I created this painting for Shirokibo as my part of the Winter Art Exchange organized by Fantasy-Fellowship . When I asked Shirokibo what she wanted me to paint for her, I invited her to suggest something challenging because I wanted to stretch the limits of my abilities. Noting the kind of subjects that I usually like to paint, Shirokibo said that getting me to make something that isn't dark or macabre seems challenging enough for me.  She also said that she wanted the painting to have a griffin in it. Little did I realize that having to paint so many feathers would put me way out of my comfort zone.  As if that wasn't bad enough, I just had to throw a scaly dragon into the mix. I mean, feathers... and scales -- a whole bunch of them! When did I become such a masochist? 

Truth be told, I'm kind of a visual storyteller at heart. I wanted to add some drama to this piece, so I couldn't resist slapping in a dollop of darkness in the form of a dragon and the storm clouds behind it. Ultimately, though, the darkness serves only as a foil to the heroic light of the gryphon rider. After all, it is in the darkness that one's light shines brightest. I like to think of this piece as symbolizing unflinching hope even when all seems lost. As in, no matter how bad things look, there's always hope for me to improve as an artist. 

Over 99% of this painting was created in Clip Studio Paint, a.k.a. Manga Studio. I then did less than a minute of post-processing in Photoshop.