Last year I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to work on a dragon book for Scholastic by way of Becker&Mayer Books. I got to take a crack at designing 16 different mythical dragons from all over the world.This one was one of the earliest I did on the project, the cockatrice. For some reason I've always had a fondness for cockatrices, probably because of how often they showed up in old jrpg's. I wanted to be true to the old depictions of the creature but bring an air of realism to its design. I know the rules about cockatrice eyes turning things to stone are a bit nebulous, but I thought it might be a neat thing if they had to close their eyes when drinking water so they don't turn it to stone. Would be super neat if thats the only time a dragon slayer has a safe chance of taking them out. You know what they say, its easiest to manipulate a cock when its thirsty.Photoshop CC: 12 hoursIllustration©Becker&Mayer Books