I'm not 9 years old, neither 12. I'm almost triple the age of your target audience. But I sincerely want to thank you for the masterpiece you have created. Now I know where to find all different species of dragons, how to catch one of them and how to study and work with them. And mostly how to protect them.
Let's keep the secrets.
Regards,
Another dragonology apprentice
Well, you will be laughing, but this book, Dragonology: The complete book of dragons, is mostly for children. Suggested reading age is 9-12 years. Hm. I might be far from that range, but I just adore this book.
What is Dragonology
Dragonology is an interactive book. We connect interactive books with kids usually. Of course, who wouldn't love the pop-ups, riddles, small paper door and plenty of interesting stories? You would be surprised, but there are interactive books also for adults!
I got Dragonology as a gift and since I have opened it for the first time; I felt as kid once again. I recently wrote an article Why do we lose our sense of wonder and imagination? in which I was talking basically about how to become a kid again, get the sense of wonder and imagination, boost creativity and fantasy.
Dragonology is a good example of how to dive deep into our inner worlds. Every page is full of surprises and talking to you as a young dragonology apprentice. Even if you try to resist, you will feel that dragons actually exist and there is so much you can learn about them.
Dr. Ernest Drake
The author of Dragonology Dr. Ernest Drake is covered by mysteries himself. If you would google his name, you would find a biography about this man, studying dragons and completing a doctorate in dragonology. But don't get fooled, he is actually a fictional character. The real author is Dugald A. Steer. And Dugald has a pretty nice series about dragons such as Bringing up baby dragons, Field guide to dragons, etc.
What can I gain with this book?
Apart from beautiful illustrations from Wayne Anderson, Helen Ward and Douglas Carrel, you will be introduced to dragonology, one of the natural sciences, the oldest and least researched.
You will be literally sucked into the book, exploring the map of dragons of the world, classification by habitat and different species of dragons. Western dragons out of Europe, Frost dragons - Arctic to Antarctic migrators, Western dragons from China and Tibet and other types of dragons such as Wywerns from Africa and Marsupials from Australia.
The concept artist handbook
Especially for concept artist this book can be very handy. If you want to draw dragons, you will learn about dragons physiology and biology such as skeleton and muscle structure, the laws of flight, the sight, wings, scales and claws features. You can see dragons' eggs in the life cycle during 4 stages of embryo to the baby dragon, followed by 12, 24 and 36 months changes.
You will tell the difference between eggs from every species and even advised how to take care about your own hatchery. We also can't forget about the history of dragons, their language, aka dragon script, and behaviour. As we all learnt from Smaug, dragons are big hoarders.
In the end we will explore the way of finding and tracking dragons, how to tame them and even fly! on them. You will be also advised how should your dragonological laboratory look like (we do not kill dragons, we preserve the dead ones) and how to use spells and charms.
Concept art is a visual representation that tells a story or conveys a certain look. It is commonly used in film and video games to convey a vision and set the tone for an entire game or movie. Concept art provides a strong reference point that helps align the creatives working on the project. -cgspectrum
Drawing with knowledge
It's important in drawing to know the story, the details, skills and physiology. More understanding you have for the certain type of creature, more accurate, believable and realistic will your drawings be. Plus, it's easier to create new species based on your knowledge. Dreaming about mud dragon or candy dragon? Not a problem. You have the ground and you can start building.
Well, the book has just 32 pages. But for me, there was no disappointment. It's catchy, interactive book full of tiny surprises. And I just love dragons. What about you?
And what did I miss as an adult? More details. I would just like if there would be more pages full of this magic but I need to be realistic here, in the end, it's a book targeted on kids. But it certainly wakes up the childlike behaviour inside of me. So definitely there is more from this series added to my wishlist.
