Giving a Big "Screw You" to Art-Hating Taggers

For the past, oh, five years or so, I have been paying frequent visits to a neighborhood book store called Browser's Books. They're a used book store that also specializes in fantasy art like Amy Brown, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, and my old art teacher Rob Carlos. If it weren't for the awesome people at Browser's (Greg, Kathi, and Rob) I would likely be only half the artist (and human being) I am now. Those guys are such an awesome part of my life. I love going to hang out there, chatting with Kathi and listening to one of Greg's many zany stories about his life.
On the back wall of the building, Rob did a really cool mural of a dragon and some fairies reading books and just recently, this happened to the mural.

When I first saw this photo on Facebook my mouth dropped open in shock. How anyone could have the nerve and destructive mind to destroy such a cool piece of art is beyond me. I practically grew up looking at that mural, and now this!
Immediately, Rob, his wife, Kathi, and Greg organized a giant re-painting get together, sort of a community event. All sorts of people showed up: friends, fans of Rob's art, patrons from the store, and me! I had to be a part of the re-painting, being an artist and devoted fan of Browser's.
Instead of re-painting the old mural, though, Rob pumped out a whole new idea almost immediately after the unfortunate tagging! Here's his original sketch of the mural:


He did this so fast, and set to work on it early on Saturday. Since Rob is a painting machine, he pretty much got most of it done before I got there at 11-ish.
But I had a different job to do!

Greg gave me a small space to paint a little dragon next to the back door. I was extremely excited about it and after a short preliminary sketch I set to work on a little dragon. Everyone seemed to enjoy how smiley and happy he was. He's been fondly dubbed the "Guardian Puppy Dragon", though I think "Dandelion" is a cute name. Everyone was saying how he's guarding the building from being defaced and acting as a really cute "graffiti deterrent".
Here he is!

I started with a black outline and some lighter shadows, then went over it with a really thick and awesome yellow color. Purple accents were a must, as well. I am very happy to have contributed to this big slap-in-the-face to the taggers who defaced Rob's mural.

Here is a photo of the mural, all completed and wonderful!

Everyone who worked on the main wall got to paint their own butterfly, too. How poetic, am I right?
Also, my friend Bri painted a dragon along with mine! They're BFFs, totally.

CUTE, RIGHT, OH MY GOSH.
Anyway!
I am glad that I could share this wonderful artistic community event with the world. Thanks to everyone who helped on it, and especially thanks to Rob, who is an amazing, dedicated painting machine who took the whole thing very graciously and even-tempered.