Spinner Report post Posted June 19, 2009 Just thought I would share some of the information I have come across on dragon styles in the last two days of researching Jen's (my fiancee) motorcycle seat. There are two themes of dragons with variations all over the place. Asian-Indo and European. Being mythical, they can be pretty much made to look however you want, but if you're going for traditional or historical based on one of the two originating styles here are some tips: Asian: Generally do not have wings, they were believed to either mystically appear where ever they wanted or simply floated on the wind as they were believed masters of the elements. The 5 main colors for them are green (earth), brown (wood), blue (water), white (wind/heaven), red (fire) and gold (metal/wealth/prosperity). For Asian dragons, the number of toes tells where it is designed for. Chinese - 5 toes Korean - 4 toes Japanese - 3 toes To tell if it's male or female, look at the tail. Female dragons will have a fan-like plume at the end while males have a bladed or pointed end. Both males and females typically have beard-like whiskers and a wild lion's mane of hair. They usually have just one head, but there are references in both Chinese and Japanese folklore of the first dragon king having 9 heads and tails. Some stories have him with one head/tail and his daughter having 8 or 9. The globes you see in many pictures are pearls, believed to be part of the first dragon king's treasure...likely being protected. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildrose Report post Posted June 19, 2009 That's fascinating, thanks! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spinner Report post Posted June 19, 2009 That's fascinating, thanks! Glad someone enjoyed learning about them... I should have the line art for my first drawing ready tonight. I'm going to start practicing the design for application on the seat but I'll share the line art early for folks to check out. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildrose Report post Posted June 20, 2009 I'm actually quite fanatical about dragons. I prefer the winged variety (aka DragonHeart movie). I thought the ones in Ring of Fire (I think that was the title?) were awesome, though that's the worst Matthew McConaughey has ever looked (I probably mucked up his last name too!) I had to laugh at how cool the oriental one is in the new Scooby Doo movie (Scooby and the Samurai Sword). Your line drawing was gorgeous too! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fonzarellis Report post Posted November 14, 2014 Hello all. Newb here. I collect dragons so I wanted to add Midieval dragons are different altogether from asian dragons and don't have the long skinny horns, feeler looking hairs,frilly stuff, or whatever you call it, around the face. The look more like lizards or dinosaurs than chinese dragons and usually have the larger wing structure. Asian dragons also have the long, snakelike bodys whereas teh Midieval dragons have stockier bodys. think T-REX with a smaller elongated head and wings. Sorry I have no pics. Still need to figure out how to upload. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
biglew Report post Posted November 16, 2014 so a medieval one is just fat so it needs bigger wings....lol (just pulling you leg a bit) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
