This little dragon was drawn around 2008-ish from memory, when I was 15. I had won my first Young Australian Artist of the Year Award (YAAWA) from the Children's Charity Network and Australian Scholarships Group and was at the awards night in Melbourne when I met Marc McBride. Growing up "Deltora Quest" (by Emily Rodda) was the series to read before Harry Potter was released, the former now adapted to an anime series for television. I was and still remain, a big fan of the series and Marc's artwork.
As such, I own all of Marc's drawings books and all of his Deltora Quest related books. Marc noted that he liked my winning YAAWA painting of that year, Society's Puppet, so consequently I promised to send him a poster (which I did). After our conversion Marc also said he'd send me some works that he had lying around, so I gave him my address thinking nothing of it. A while later, a package arrived with three works in it: two cover paintings and the Emerald Dragon drawing from Marc's book, "How to Draw Deltora Dragons". Safe to say this was very unexpected and within a few days I had drawn Ara, the little dragon shown here, the send back to him in thanks.
I have met Marc again and again at YAAWA in the years since and he always seems to be handing out the excess copies of his books to the prize winners. Last year I picked up a copy of "World of Monsters". Finding Ara makes me want to draw more dragons though, maybe some ones from Deltora.
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