Skill and Confidence: Dragon Painting from Nikko, Japan

In the Japanese town of Nikko, which lies to the north of Tokyo, there is a shop famous for paintings of dragons. Below you can watch an artist from that shop freehand a fantastic dragon right before your eyes using traditional techniques passed down from one generation of artists to the next for centuries. The use of pressure on the large brush to create the illusion of scales is mind-blowing, as are the vivid hand mixed colors and the complete assurance and steady hand of the painter. It’s both enchanting and relaxing to see such skill. I’d tell you more, but I don’t even know the artist’s name.

Japanese dragons, like those of the Chinese, are usually water spirits that depict either rainfall or a body of water such as a lake, river or ocean. As such, they are typically wingless, snakelike beings with taloned feet, as opposed to the heavyset, winged dragons from the European imagination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARHTtW_l7uw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3nR68lFRko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3NKznkZme8

Source : http://synkroniciti.com/2013/05/01/skill-and-confidence-dragon-painting-from-nikko-japan/