I’ve Heard Stories of Vikings… by Melissa van der Paardt | Writing Dragons Writing Dragons I find dragons for you every week while I write my novel Finding Dragons Menu Skip to content Home *About Me Finding Dragons A to Z Challenge ’16/’17/’18 A to Z Challenge 2016 A to Z Challenge 2017 A to Z Challenge 2018 Birthstone Dragons Neeka’s Story Pride & LGBTQ+ Ren Fest 2018 Random Writings Writing Thoughts & Quotes I’ve Heard Stories of Vikings… by Melissa van der Paardt Jamie Lyn Weigt / January 21, 2018 I came across these adorable Night Furies as I was looking for a ‘Viking dragon’ in honor of the Minnesota Vikings’ big football games last week and tonight, and the title is just perfect — this is I’ve Heard Stories of Vikings… by American professional artist and animator Melissa van der Paardt, posting as sketchinthoughts. Some of Melissa’s fans posted ideas about the conversation between these two cuties, so go check them out! Then after browsing Melissa’s gallery, I have completely fallen in love with her many art styles, so I decided to continue this as her feature rather than share more Viking dragons tonight. Maybe I’ll have a chance to post more in a few weeks, if they make the SuperBowl? Who knows. So for now, one HTTYD image always leads to more — this one is called First Impressions. I love this baby Night Fury seeing one of the eels that dragons just hate — longtime fans will remember how obsessed I am with Toothless and How to Train Your Dragon! But Melissa has non-HTTYD dragons too, so up next is Red Dragon, a beautifully colored and adorable take on a Chinese dragon. He belongs in an animated film of his own, don’t you think? Then this next one is awesome, and in fact Melissa uses this piece as her header logo on her early blogspot site Sketchin Thoughts, where you can find her artwork up through 2014. This is called Thinking in Shapes, a “little guy [she] found in [her] sketchbook.” Adorable! But then, of course, I found her Pokemon artwork, so I just had to share them too! In fact, the reason this post is a day late (besides the fact I’ve been working on the novel class) is because yesterday I spent the day participating in the first Pokemon Go Community Day! I usually only track about 8,000 steps per day, in part thanks to chasing Pokemon around downtown Minneapolis, but with the special event, I logged more than 19,000 steps yesterday! It was amazingly fun — I caught myself a shiny Pikachu, and I got to show some of my non-downtown friends around my Pokemon hunting grounds — but it was also exhausting, so afterward I came home and took a nap instead of writing. So first up in the Pokemon category, here is Dragonite Stamp. I’d absolutely buy a book of these, and I bet she could create a whole series in this minimalist style that would be really popular! Then switching to a sketching style, this is Epic Gyarados created for fellow deviantartist TheFlyingSpoon. (She has a few lovely pieces in her own gallery that you could check out as well.) And while technically Gyarados isn’t a Dragon-type Pokemon (he’s Water/Flying), I’m not such a stickler for that rule — if it looks like a dragon, I’ll count it as one for my blog posts! Which is why this next guy, in yet another completely different and awesome art style, gets to join the party — this is Charizard, which one of Melissa’s fans captioned, “Suspicious Charizard is suspicious.” That expression is just great, right? He’s also not technically a Dragon-type (he’s Fire/Flying), but he was too cute to leave out. And finally for the Pokemon, we’re back to another actual Dragon-type — this is Tyrantrum, a Rock/Dragon Fossil Pokemon introduced in Gen 6, the X/Y games, and he also shows up in Ultra Sun/Moon. He’s pretty cute here, but the images on Bulbapedia show quite a terrifying beast! And finally, I have to share this amazing 3.5 minute animation that Melissa did for her third year film when she was a student at the California Institute of Arts. I watched this for the first time the other night while I was sitting at a busy bar and doing the prep work for this post. I didn’t even have the sound on, but even still, I had tears streaming down my face watching this amazing short animation, and I’m sure the other patrons thought I was nuts! So I’m serious, be sure you grab your tissue box before you watch Taking Flight by Melissa van der Paardt: You can find lots more of Melissa’s amazing artwork in her deviantart gallery and also follow her on Tumblr — her animal designs are really adorable. Also make sure you check out the children’s books she’s illustrated for Simon & Schuster: the first is Mimi and Shu in I’ll Race You!, and second is Simon’s New Bed — a must-read for anyone with a big dog and small cat sharing a home! Both were written by Christian Trimmer, but Melissa’s illustrations really bring them to life, I think! Once again I’m planning to make up for my lateness by having another post out later this week, and I’ve already decided to feature one of my favorite artists, since I realized I haven’t shared them since last summer! So hopefully I can get that out quick, and get back to working on the really thought-provoking writing assignments for my Finish Your Novel class. It’s going really well, and I’m excited about Finding Dragons again! Even though I’m a die-hard Packers fan, since they’re already out of the running and the Patriots are in it, I have to admit I’m rooting for the Vikings to win tonight and go on to play in the SuperBowl. We’re hosting it here in Minneapolis, and SuperBowl events are already starting this week, so it’s going to be a fun time no matter what! But since no team has ever played in the SuperBowl when they’ve also been the hosting stadium, it’d be really special if they could make it. Thanks as always for reading, take care, and stay creative! Image credits: All artwork featured in this post is by Melissa van der Paardt, posting as sketchinthoughts I’ve Heard Stories of Vikings…, First Impressions, Red Dragon, Thinking in Shapes, Dragonite Stamp, Epic Gyarados, Charizard, Tyrantrum, Taking Flight animation short, and illustration from Simon’s New Bed written by Christian Trimmer Share this: Twitter Facebook Pinterest Tumblr Like this: Like Loading... January 21, 2018 in Dragons. Tags: animation, art, charizard, dragons, fantasy, football, how to train your dragon, httyd, movies, pokemon, toothless, Viking Related posts Urnes Dragon Plate by Thorskegga Thorn How to Train Your Viking by Crownflame Happy Birthday Hiccup (and me!) by sharkie19 Post navigation ← January Birthstone Dragons – Garnet – by Various Artists Nettle by Sandara → Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here... Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Δ Translate Looking for dragon relating to a particular topic, or by a particular artist? Search here! Search You can also follow me by email! Click here to have dragons and other updates delivered right to your email inbo. Email Address: Follow Me! Join 461 other followers Follow Writing Dragons on WordPress.com Click to like Writing Dragons on Facebook! Click to like Writing Dragons on Facebook! Blogs I’ve recently followed: St. Paul 2 St. Pete Richie Billing AUTHOR SCOTT BURTNESS Journal of Fandom Studies barron's blog Lucy Flint Jamie Todd Rubin If you enjoy my site and you’re feeling generous, check out this new button! Just a few of my favorite dragons over the years… This slideshow requires JavaScript. Most Recently Viewed Posts Dragon Artwork at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival 2018 (Part 5/8) LGBTQIA+ Pride Dragons by Kaenith Random Writing for July - The Harp, inspired by Harris Burdick Writing Thoughts: Things are not what they seem... Dragon Artwork at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival 2018 (Part 2/8) Popular Tags adventure art atozchallenge birthstones birthstone series books cats dragons fandom fantasy fiction first novel Game of Thrones Games geek gems green holiday How Many Dragons? inspiration lgbtq+ movies novel procrastinating quotes sculpture toothless writing writing prompts YA Categories A to Z Challenge 2016 (27) A to Z Challenge 2017 (24) A to Z Challenge 2018 (28) Articles (1) Birthstone Dragons (24) Blogging 101 Assignments (6) Bright Ideas (12) Dragons (287) Finding Dragons (5) LGBTQ+ (15) Missed Days (12) Musings (24) Neeka (13) Notes (1) Quotes (40) Random Writing (12) Reblogs (1) Ren Fest 2018 (8) Writing Exercises (4) I posted amazing dragon art nearly every single day from January to November 2016, and then a few times a month until December 2019. Check out the archive below! December 2019 (2) November 2019 (1) September 2019 (1) August 2019 (2) July 2019 (1) June 2019 (3) May 2019 (3) April 2019 (2) March 2019 (1) February 2019 (1) January 2019 (3) December 2018 (6) November 2018 (4) October 2018 (4) September 2018 (5) August 2018 (5) July 2018 (3) June 2018 (5) May 2018 (4) April 2018 (27) March 2018 (5) February 2018 (5) January 2018 (4) December 2017 (4) November 2017 (5) October 2017 (4) September 2017 (4) August 2017 (3) July 2017 (3) June 2017 (2) May 2017 (2) April 2017 (19) March 2017 (5) February 2017 (4) January 2017 (4) December 2016 (1) November 2016 (2) October 2016 (26) September 2016 (30) August 2016 (31) July 2016 (31) June 2016 (30) May 2016 (31) April 2016 (39) March 2016 (32) February 2016 (29) January 2016 (33) December 2015 (5) I finished my third AtoZ Challenge in April 2018! I went back to featuring random dragons each day, and found some really fantastic artwork. (Make sure you check out X!) Click the image above to see all my AtoZ posts! I participated in the April 2017 AtoZ Challenge, and while I fell short by 4 letters, I had a great time with my longer Dragons in Fandom essays! Click the image above to see my AtoZ posts! I survived and completed my first AtoZ Challenge in April 2016! Click the image above to see my AtoZ posts! Copyright Notices: All original text on this site is ©Jamie Lyn Weigt 2016-2020, with all rights reserved. * * * * * Please do not share my work without a direct link back to this site, thanks! * * * * * All images used on this site are copyright of the original artist. * * * * * If you borrow anything from WritingDragons.com, please be sure to credit the original artist! * * * * * Check out the links within and at the bottom of each post to find the original artist's info and links. * * * * * Create a website or blog at WordPress.com St. Paul 2 St. Pete Welcome to my new blogging adventure! StPaul2StPete.com Richie Billing Fantasy Writer AUTHOR SCOTT BURTNESS I write paranormal comedy. Paranomedy. Comedormal? That stuff. Journal of Fandom Studies barron's blog Just another WordPress.com weblog Lucy Flint I find dragons for you every week while I write my novel Finding Dragons Jamie Todd Rubin Writer Follow Following Writing Dragons Join 461 other followers Sign me up Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now. Writing Dragons Customize Follow Following Sign up Log in Copy shortlink Report this content View post in Reader Manage subscriptions Collapse this bar Loading Comments... Write a Comment... Email (Required) Name (Required) Website Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy %d bloggers like this: