Here Be Dragons

I've noticed this picture on a couple of sites that sell posters and prints as well as in the picture library of Look and Learn.  It is another example of Embleton's work and is always titled 'Boy and Girl on Lake'.

Ron Embleton - The Last Dragons

I often wonder if anyone who sees it is curious to know what the children are looking at as the dragonflies are not included in the stand-alone version of the scene.

This illustration is from a story called 'The Last Dragons' that appeared in the 1963 Jack and Jill annual.  It is about two very unhappy dragons who become the first dragonflies.  The story even recounts that the dragonflies decide to marry so the new species will continue.  
    

As a child I was intrigued by the depiction of the fairies in this story.  They are very grown up - more sirens than simple fairies with a refined glamour reminiscent of the golden age of movie stars.  In some ways they are an early precursor of the adult illustration work Embleton did towards the end of his career.

I've included a detail of one of the fairies from this story, followed by a panel from the story I posted in my first blog entry, The Golden Ball.  Although separated by a couple of years the depiction of the fairies in both is very similar.      

Ron Embleton - The Golden Ball

More dragons can be found in Delightful Dragons posted 12 August.

The Green in Winter

Last time I included photos of the swans in St Stephen's Green taken last summer.  Just before Christmas the park was covered in snow.  The next photo shows the same lake frozen over.  The swans were left with a tiny place to swim, sheltered by a bridge.  

Another photograph of the park in winter.