Black Dragon Knight

This is a personal piece, which I completed in under three days. Before this I was busy creating concept art for a movie. This assignment had lasted a number if months, and before moving on to my next project I was keen to paint an image that was the opposite of my concept art. O wanted it to be realistic and heavily detailed, and decided to portray the classic fantasy elements of a knight and dragon. However, I still had to draw on my film concept art experience to achieve my goal. Because I wast short of time, I used textures to help speed up the painting process.
The origins of this piece came from the sandy building image that I eventually used in the background. It gave me the idea of painting a knight in the desert. At first I toyed with the idea of depicting a knight on a horse, but then I wondered if it might look a little odd, seeing a horse in such a dry, hostile environment. So I changed my mind and settled instead on a dragon with black scales, so that it contrasted nicely with the sandy desert. Once I was happy with my initial idea, I started to sketch out the scene.