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Description
Late June, 2005. The purple dragon Spyro holds a special sentimental value to me, because it was the Spyro games that gave me an interest in drawing dragons. But Spyro, as a game series, is a bit broken. Insomniac raised him well, Universal gave him the shaft (with Enter the Dragonfly), though Digital Eclipse did fair penance with his GBA outings, and A Hero's Tail was what Spyro's PS2 debut should have looked like.

There's news about a new Spyro game coming out this fall... will it redeem the purple dragon's reputation, or sign him off as a has-been?

Anyway. Playing through a Hero's Tail, I liked Spyro's choices of elemental breath (Lightning was by far my favorite), but I sort of missed the old-fashioned super-breath powerups from the early Spyro games. I had a weird idea. What if, when Spyro collected an elemental-breath powerup, it didn't just change his breath, but his entire form?

So here goes . . . Spyro mixed with a few influences from my series of elemental dragons.

First up, glowing red on the left, is Spyro of the Flame. In this fiery form, Spyro would gain complete immunity to all fire attacks and hazards, plus the ability to swim through lava like he normally swims through shallow water. Maybe even dive under the lava's surface for a moment to evade attacks or hunt for hidden items. It's worth nothing that this form would limit his breath options to Fire breath only, both as a short-range spread of flame, as well as long-range fireballs hurled from a first-person view. His enhanced fire breath would allow him to take down the normally heatproof metal enemies, and being immune to fire also means he'd be able to ram into fire-based enemies, to attack them without incurring damage in return. Just keep the Flame Spyro out of normal water and ice-based attacks or the flames go out, leaving Spyro at weakened health (one hit away from a KO).

Second, at the lower right is the Spyro of Ice. The first of the three poses I sketched, and my personal favorite (yes, this is where my user avvie comes from ). In this crystalline armor, Spyro's key characteristic is being versatile: The icy scales render him impervious to ice attacks or cold hazards, and while limited to Ice breath in this form, he'd be able to freeze and shatter enemies either at close or long ranges alike. In addition, his long-range ice breath would also be able to freeze patches of water into blocks of ice, or cool molten lava into chunks of safe ground. His reflective body would enable him to turn nearly invisible, and thus protect him from attack (stealth kills, anyone?), especially underwater with the pesky sharks. Just mind a weakness to fire-based attacks, and keep him out of the boiling lava.

Third, flying on top, is the avian Spyro of Air, the fastest of the three. His newfound coat of feathers makes such a stark difference to his ordinary scales that some enemies might fail to recognize him as a dragon, as a threat. Spyro would gain enhanced acrobatic abilities such as a triplejump-glide (instead of doublejump-glide), hovering, wall-jumps from any surface (even enemies) and the ability to superdash both on ground and in midair. Completely immune to electrical attacks and able to generate blasts of wind to disorient foes (never underestimate a good distraction!) and packing very potent lightning breath, enemies served medium rare at medium range, plus no real vulnerabilities to speak of.

Enjoy... I can hardly wait to hear more about what the next Spyro game will be like.

Media: Colored pencil
Time spent: Seven hours (for some reason)
Size: 75px/in at full-view.

Exhibited in the 2005 Tillamook County Fair, Class A (Amateur Adult), Lot 22 (Drawings/Fantasy), received a third-place premium (second went to my Shiorens, and first to my sister's exhibit. Turns out we were the only ones exhibiting in the Class A Fantasy section last year.)

Work-in-progress scans of this drawing are available in my Scraps section, here.

Description
Late June, 2005. The purple dragon Spyro holds a special sentimental value to me, because it was the Spyro games that gave me an interest in drawing dragons. But Spyro, as a game series, is a bit broken. Insomniac raised him well, Universal gave him the shaft (with Enter the Dragonfly), though Digital Eclipse did fair penance with his GBA outings, and A Hero's Tail was what Spyro's PS2 debut should have looked like.

There's news about a new Spyro game coming out this fall... will it redeem the purple dragon's reputation, or sign him off as a has-been?

Anyway. Playing through a Hero's Tail, I liked Spyro's choices of elemental breath (Lightning was by far my favorite), but I sort of missed the old-fashioned super-breath powerups from the early Spyro games. I had a weird idea. What if, when Spyro collected an elemental-breath powerup, it didn't just change his breath, but his entire form?

So here goes . . . Spyro mixed with a few influences from my series of elemental dragons.

First up, glowing red on the left, is Spyro of the Flame. In this fiery form, Spyro would gain complete immunity to all fire attacks and hazards, plus the ability to swim through lava like he normally swims through shallow water. Maybe even dive under the lava's surface for a moment to evade attacks or hunt for hidden items. It's worth nothing that this form would limit his breath options to Fire breath only, both as a short-range spread of flame, as well as long-range fireballs hurled from a first-person view. His enhanced fire breath would allow him to take down the normally heatproof metal enemies, and being immune to fire also means he'd be able to ram into fire-based enemies, to attack them without incurring damage in return. Just keep the Flame Spyro out of normal water and ice-based attacks or the flames go out, leaving Spyro at weakened health (one hit away from a KO).

Second, at the lower right is the Spyro of Ice. The first of the three poses I sketched, and my personal favorite (yes, this is where my user avvie comes from ). In this crystalline armor, Spyro's key characteristic is being versatile: The icy scales render him impervious to ice attacks or cold hazards, and while limited to Ice breath in this form, he'd be able to freeze and shatter enemies either at close or long ranges alike. In addition, his long-range ice breath would also be able to freeze patches of water into blocks of ice, or cool molten lava into chunks of safe ground. His reflective body would enable him to turn nearly invisible, and thus protect him from attack (stealth kills, anyone?), especially underwater with the pesky sharks. Just mind a weakness to fire-based attacks, and keep him out of the boiling lava.

Third, flying on top, is the avian Spyro of Air, the fastest of the three. His newfound coat of feathers makes such a stark difference to his ordinary scales that some enemies might fail to recognize him as a dragon, as a threat. Spyro would gain enhanced acrobatic abilities such as a triplejump-glide (instead of doublejump-glide), hovering, wall-jumps from any surface (even enemies) and the ability to superdash both on ground and in midair. Completely immune to electrical attacks and able to generate blasts of wind to disorient foes (never underestimate a good distraction!) and packing very potent lightning breath, enemies served medium rare at medium range, plus no real vulnerabilities to speak of.

Enjoy... I can hardly wait to hear more about what the next Spyro game will be like.

Media: Colored pencil
Time spent: Seven hours (for some reason)
Size: 75px/in at full-view.

Exhibited in the 2005 Tillamook County Fair, Class A (Amateur Adult), Lot 22 (Drawings/Fantasy), received a third-place premium (second went to my Shiorens, and first to my sister's exhibit. Turns out we were the only ones exhibiting in the Class A Fantasy section last year.)

Work-in-progress scans of this drawing are available in my Scraps section, here.