Here's another piece that's been waiting patiently for completion. I started this with a line drawing in 2012, then just put the finishing touches onto it over the weekend.

I brought this piece - in a great many pieces - with me to the Archon convention so that I could talk about my thought process when it comes to rocks, paper, scissors, and shiny bits. We looked at the effect that different background colors had on the dragon, and experimented with the effect of different kinds of stone had on the overall feel of the project. What you see here is the result of our discussion, as well as some additional decisions I made during the assembly process.

The dragon is colored with Prismacolor Premier pencils over a watercolor base.

The background is made of scrapbook paper, cut at angles and glued down on a black backing sheet.

The large round stone on the right is called Red Creek Jasper. The reddish hexagonal stones are another type of jasper (unlabeled when purchased, but I like its trade name: "Chocolate Syrup Jasper"). The round stones between the hexagons are golden obsidian, and they shimmer in the light. There are also some dark green bloodstone jaspers for contrast.

There are a couple of metal beads that had just the right color coordination to work with the piece.

The rest of the odds and ends are rhinestones and assorted fancy stickers.