DRAGONFLIGHT
Cover illustration for Anne McCaffrey
For the first book in Anne McCaffrey's now legendary Dragonriders of Pern series, I wanted to create a literal visualization of the title. I selected an aerial point-of-view and tilted the horizon to simulate the dizzying sensation of flight.
Anne's dragons aren't really dragons per se, but an alien life form with similar attributes. They had been portrayed by other artists, but I was determined to create the dragons more faithfully to her description.
I studied crocodiles and bat wings and wrote to Anne with many questions. After all that, it was somewhat of a letdown to have the editor Judy Lynn del Rey tell me that based on their descriptions, it would be physically impossible for the dragons to fly. It's because they "think" they can, that they do.
Interestingly, like the Foundation books, I didn't start with the first book in the series. The White Dragon was my first Pern cover assignment. But I painted new covers for Dragonflight and Dragonquest soon after.
Additional images from DRAGONFLIGHT
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