Some days, I draw cute little cartoon characters. Other days, I draw big aggressive things like this. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Last week, I discovered the English fairy tale “The Laidly Worm.” I had never heard of it before, but I was fascinated by the story. It tells of an evil witch who takes over the kingdom while her stepson, and the rightful heir to the throne, was away at sea.  She also transforms her stepdaughter, the princess, into a terrible dragon, known as the Laidly Worm.  The Prince, being the dashing fairy-tale hero that he is, returns home to slay the dragon and depose his wicked stepmother. He’s about to kill the dragon, when he discovers that he’s about to kill his own sister.  Of course, he doesn’t, instead he breaks the spell, stops the Queen, and everyone lives happily ever after.  There are longer versions of this story all over the net, just google “Laidly Worm.”

I was so interested in this story that I had to illustrate a scene from it. So here is the Prince as he confronts the Laidly Worm, while the Queen casts one last magic spell to slow him down.  This is one of those drawings that grew on me as I worked, becoming more complex than I had intended.  I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to go ahead and color this or not… we’ll see.