So my family has the Renaissance Fair bug. Big time.  Me, too.

Of course, I can’t just be satisfied with a wizard outfit. Now I’ve got it in my head that I want to develop an animatronic dragon to sit on my shoulder and “wow” the crowd.

I’ve bought some DVDs from the Stan Winston School of Character Arts – yeah, that’s a thing. And these show you a lot of the how-to.

I’m planning eye movement, head movement, a 4-way/2-stage neck movement, a “wing flutter”, and a mist-spray (like steam) from the mouth on demand.

I’m sourcing parts, and making mock-ups, etc. And I’ll post more as I go.

I do have a couple of pictures below:

• I made a drawing of a person (a “me” stand-in!) with the wizard outfit, plus dragon on the shoulder.
• I made am approximate life-size drawing of the dragon.
• I made a 1/4 size maquette of the dragon.  Note the longer neck, and the presence of wing bones structure.

Wish me luck!

Wizard with outfit and dragon

First drawing of dragon, at scale

1/4 size maquette of dragon