But at hearing these words, the Samurai took hold of the hilt of his sword and cried...

"NO! Not for all the gold in Japan, nor for the seat of the Emperor himself will I part with this dragon!"

This is my entry in support of @jacinta.sevilla's 2nd Drawing with a Twist Contest. For this challenge, we were tasked to draw a samurai with a small dragon in his hands or shoulders.

The short scene at the top of this post was a story I was thinking of while drawing this. It's in connection to the story Jacinta shares in the Contest Post. I recommend checking it out!

The story is about decorated retired Samurai who lost his house, wife and child to a fire. Out of the ashes of his loved ones was born a small dragon which was coveted by the Emperor.

Concept

Trying to think of a scene for this nearly drove me nuts. Hahaha. I did more than 4 different drawings, some sketches, some nearly completed. Here are a few examples:

Top left nearly made it but it was taking so long to decide on the colors and it was looking more and more blah with every minute I spent coloring it so I trashed the colored version.

I finally decided on doing black and white with a little red to reflect a more Asian vibe.

The Refusal of the Samurai was drawn using ArtRage Lite Software. I used the ink pen and watercolor brush. For a detailed explanation of my digital painting process, you can check out a recent post of mine, "Hana."

I did not erase the rough sketch lines because the painting looked better with it.

I put together a process montage for you guys.

There's still lots of time to submit an entry and you can check out this contest by clicking --> HERE.

Thanks for viewing my dragon art!

^src

See you next time,