Dracopedia The Bestiary: An Artist's Guide to Creating Mythical Creatures

Unleash the Beasts!

For millennia historians, artists and scientists have chronicled their ideas and discoveries of mythological and magical monsters in encyclopedias known as bestiaries. From Asia to America, Japan to the jungles of South Africa, the vast menagerie of exotic and legendary creatures has populated the imaginations of all cultures for centuries.

Beautifully illustrated and fantastically detailed, Dracopedia: The Bestiary is a modern, but no less unsettling reimagining of the ancient version. It is an A-to-Z artist's guide to animals of the legendary world. Some, like the griffin and yeti, may be familiar to you. Others--like the enigmatic questing beast and ferocious manticore--may seem new and strange. Some may even haunt your dreams. Inside the bestiary, you will find:

   • Secrets of each animal's evolution--origins, habitat, anatomy, diet and more.
   • Fantastic illustrations created using pencil sketches and digital coloring.
   • Four-stage demonstrations taking you from concept and design to under-painting and finishing details.


By drawing on the forms and features of more pedestrian animals, you'll learn how to give shape to the bizarre creatures that roam the depths of your imagination, adding to the bestiary of the ages.

Illustrator, concept artist, fine artist and teacher, William O'Connor graduated from Alfred University and also attended The School of Visual Arts and Parsons School of Design. He has freelanced for Harper Collins, Lucasfilm, Doubleday, Wizards of the Coast, Bookspan, Hasbro, History Channel and more. He's executed thousands of illustrations for gaming and publishing, as well as production designs, concepts, posters and advertisements. He has won over thirty awards and has been published in the showcase books Spectrum 12 and Spectrum 13: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. O'Connor is a member of the Graphic Artist's Guild, New York; Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists; American Showcase of Illustration; and Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. He resides in Pearl River, NY. Visit his website, wocstudios.com, and blog, williamoconnorstudios.blogspot.com.