2001. That's a good starting point for my first upload -- ergo, you're looking at something six years old.

This was one of my first "scaleys": A regular scaleplated chiropteran digitigrade anthropomorphic draconic -- otherwise named 'dracan'.

I originally designed their species in response to an impassioned dislike of traditional "lizardmen", EverQuest's interpretation of lizard-men (the Iksaar) in particular. This was actually the second version of their species, which is somehow less anthropomorphized than the originals. (Anyone curious about their first sketches can find them in my deviantART gallery, because I don't feel like uploading those old things to FA.)

Dracans stand about the same size and intelligence as a human, but as part of being winged reptilians, they do have the distinction of flight, and are able to understand dragonspeak as well.

One key physio characteristic that became a standard for all my scalies to follow is to draw the tail in first, then draw the legs around it. This gives them a unique look compared to the ubiquitous, legs-first-then-"pin-the-tail-on" structure that you can find anywhere. (Though I imagine it makes sitting down . . . well, different.)

This dracan is actually a male, but the differences between their sexes are subtle (females are also called 'dracennes') and most humans aren't trained to look for them.

Created using a "mosaic" technique, shading color on blank paper, dicing it up into confetti and then gluing it to black construction paper (on top of a pencil sketch to guide me, pencil shows up surprisingly well on black paper). It was a class assignment from 2001, and there's over 400 individual tiles in it. Originally took me nine hours, and I exhibited it in our town's 2003 County Fair.

8x10", full-views at 75px/in.