Zions Bank dragon and environment

For the past 3 years, Zions Bank in Moscow enthusiastically hosted me during the annual Moscow Artwalk. It’s been wonderful being able to work with a business that feels so passionately about the community artists. This year I wanted to thank them in a more special way.

I created a banker dragon environment. This idea had been in my mind since the first year they hosted me, but I didn’t feel like I could do the piece justice until earlier this year. Year after year, the employees at the bank continue to welcome me back and truly enjoy my work. I wanted to make them something special to let them know how much that means to me.

The first thing I did was pick out the piece of wood to use as the base. I wanted this environment to have a sturdy base so that the dragon and desk would always be secure. With this base, I could surround the dragon in stacks of money. I realize this isn’t realistic, but I thought it’d be a fun touch.

Once the size and shape of the base was decided, I began working on the bank teller desk. Originally I was thinking I would build this desk out of clay, only because I didn’t have the appropriate tools to create one from wood. Then, I was remembered a technique I could use while I was playing with resin. I had seen a fellow artist, @heretherebesculptures, use popsicle sticks to create all sorts of beautiful mini furniture. If I could find a good way to cut them to size without breaking them, then it would be perfect for creating a wooden desk!

I created templates for each part of the desk, the 2 taller sides and the shorter middle, and then constructed a base from paper. This is what I would glue the popsicle sticks to so they would have a structure, and then I would glue the entire bottom of this “armature” to the wooden base.

I then went piece by piece, measuring their length and cutting bits down to size as needed. All in all, I think the width of the sticks I had worked pretty well—there were only a couple of spots that I had to trim down a really thin piece of the stick to complete a side.

I then cut down more sticks to make the trim around the bottom and tops of the desk to finish off the edges.

To smooth out some of the areas, I used stainable wood filler to fill in the gaps between the sticks. This showed a little bit through the stain I added later, but using a few coats of stain seemed to help. The color of the stain was picked to match the color of wood in their bank.

From there, it was time to start on the dragon. I based the color palette off of the bank’s logo, blue, green, and white. I posed him to be standing behind the desk with his paws out like he was counting through money.

This dragon needed a pair of mini glasses. After seeing other sculptors add glasses to their creatures, this is something I always thought was so stinkin’ cute. I could never figure out how to do it with my style since my dragons’ eyes were on the sides of their heads. When I changed up their facial structure earlier this year, I knew it was only a matter of time before I tried this.

I created the pair from scratch so they would fit perfectly. I’m not the best wire worker, but I think the frame turned out pretty good. I also  filled the lenses with UV resin so they would look realistic.

Now, it was only a matter of adding some money stacks. I printed and cut out paper money and glued those together. I prebaked coins and piles of coins that could then be added as I saw necessary.

Once everything was coated with a protective glaze, this little one was ready to be presented!

Thank you Zions for welcoming me year after year!