Blog | We Have Dragons!

August 10, 2021 Fanart

HTTYD Fanart Gallery #8 – There Were Dragons Here

A Night Fury dragon flying at night, an Aurora lighting up the sky and landscape.

Beautiful HTTYD fanart, with fresh and open scenery where generally friendly dragons would feel at home – wide open spaces and natural beauty all around.

There are quite a lot of places on our planet, that look like they could be home to HTTYD’s dragons. In fact, in nearly every civilisation throughout history, even going back thousands of years, there appears to have been some kind of mention of dragon-like creatures. These dragons can be divided into two major groups/types: the Western dragons and the Eastern (Asian) dragons.
Throughout Western history, the mythical dragons were rarely considered to be a good omen, or sign of something positive – satan himself is described in The Bible as a dragon. However, Eastern (Asian) cultures generally saw dragons as something positive and wise.

Despite the differing interpretations of what dragons represent, it’s quite fascinating that so many different and far apart cultures around the world, shared stories of such creatures.

August 9, 2021 Editorial

Hello again! An update, with more HTTYD goodies to come.

Cute dog, photo, portrait, looking towards camera.

Toothless happily rolling around in grass. — Toothless – by Saeto15

Female dog blissfully rolling on her back, in wet grass. — Good Times! – WeHaveDragons.org

Wow, how quickly time flew by! I certainly haven’t given up on this fansite – on the contrary.

There are more blog posts waiting to be posted, all discussing amazing fanart, news and other interesting goodies. For today there’s the latest “There Were Dragons Here” blog post, which was already written back in 2019, but never posted.

Quite a bit of official HTTYD stuff has happened in the meantime, since the last update:

August 7, 2019 Editorial, News

The Lion King 2019 Review: Farts Are OK Now, & so is Violent BULLYING!

This 2019 version of “The Lion King” is truly a visually lush and beautiful 3D computer animated movie, that shows us just how amazing traditional 2D hand animated movies can be in comparison. A flawed remake, with some interesting and sometimes disturbing changes, for a new generation of (easier to upset and influence) children and adults.

Most reviews that are currently available for this movie, criticise the limitations of photorealistic 3D animation, in telling a story with talking animals as the main characters.
This review will also touch on the subject of 2D VS. 3D animation, but it’s too easy to leave things at that – it seems that a lot of this movie (the voice acting, music and also story) not only didn’t “evolve” along with the new 3D medium, but also went backwards.
The overall result is a visual feast and marvel, but a total package being less “cohesive” and lower quality, than the smash hit 1994 original of “The Lion King”.
There’s more to it than that though, because other things were changed and added as well – some of those changes having apparently malevolent reasons:

July 6, 2019 Fanart

HTTYD Fanart Gallery #7 – A Dragon Fantasy

Toothless towards viewer, surrounded by rocks

A story outside a story – out of character, out of universe and its time. Whatever the following art shows, it wouldn’t quite fit into the official HTTYD story. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t pretty amazing though!

Sometimes one will come across fanart featuring the official HTTYD characters along with the artist’s own created characters, or variations of the official story.
Personally, I feel it’s not only interesting to see re-tellings and beautiful snapshots of the original story, but also artists’ imaginative variations and fantasy.
This is a subject that I’d like to post about again in the future.

Here are some of my favourite HTTYD fanarts, that are a fantasy of the official story:

June 19, 2019 News, WeHaveDragons.org Things

This is WeHaveDragons.org!

Ruffnut and Tuffnut arguing, Barf-and-Belch chewing on surveying equipment, on Berk.

Berk wasn’t built in a day, and neither was this new “How to Train Your Dragon” fansite, blog and forum!

Hey there! I’m Beinir (Ben) Madbear: a hairy (hooligan) Web developer and online producer living in Australia, who only saw the first HTTYD movie in August last year.
Soon afterwards, I had decided to start work on this fansite.

It took a while, but now this fansite is ready to show you. (For more detail on why this fansite was made, see the “About” page here.)

Hiccup and Toothless portrait — Hi there! – by Masterrohan

Needless to say, I’ve become quite the HTTYD fan and want to collect and show my favorites of what other fans are sharing with like-minded people.
There are many places to look however, and I rely on other HTTYD fans to keep sending goodies they themselves like: such as news, fanart, fanfiction and other cool things.

If you’ve found or made something really nice, send it my way!
If it becomes one of my favourites, I might add it to one of my future blog posts, or invite you to post it on our HTTYD Community Forum.

I am not going to accept money for third-party ads, nor use affiliate links and I won’t “sell” the fansite or my opinions on anything – this fansite is independent. Making money means “work”, and I want this (fan)site to remain “fun”.

Why not see our friendly Community Forum (logging in will show all its categories), and introduce yourself! Signing up to our forum is the best way to stay in touch with new cool Dragons stuff added on this fansite.

June 12, 2019 Fanart

HTTYD Fanart Gallery #6 – Theme: An Unexpected Style

How to Train Your Dragon fanart, painted and drawn a little differently than you might expect.

Hiccup and Toothless looking at each other, like best friends. — By: LivingAliveCreator

Every piece of HTTYD fanart I’ve seen, is influenced by the artist’s unique style. However, one can usually tell that an artist’s own greatest influence when drawing HTTYD fanart, was DreamWork’s main style from the movies.

Cartoony drawing of Astrid and Stormfly looking at each other happily. — By: JellyPuffer

Sometimes, fanart can also take on a “children’s book” appearance. I enjoy seeing peoples’ fanart, no matter in what style it was created, as long as it’s well-made and still makes sense.
Although sometimes, one comes across something that still looks good, but different-good.

This blog post is all about the fanart that to me stands out, just a bit more than first expected – thanks to its unique style that doesn’t easily remind of the style from the official movie or children’s books.

June 11, 2019 Fanart

HTTYD Fanart Gallery #5 – Theme: For the Love of Toothless

Toothless standing on rocks, looking out to sea

Fanart of Toothless, from the movies and TV series! Well, Toothless is my favourite dragon. He’s more than just a super-powerful, fast and rare dragon to look at from afar, but also a dragon who’s willing to reach out and open himself up to those with truly good intentions, rather than just isolate himself completely.
No wonder he’s so popular.

Drawing of small green dragon, with red wing membranes — Original book version of Toothless – Cressida Cowell

The original book series version of Toothless is a “little” different – being small as a rabbit, green and very naughty, but he too grew on me as I went through the books.
In the book series, Hiccup rides a “Windwalker”, who is a very fast and agile dragon. Hiccup was teased by his peers for choosing the Windwalker as his riding dragon, as they’re supposedly common and “an ugly duckling” when younger.

June 10, 2019 Fanart

HTTYD Fanart Gallery #4 – Theme: Astrid & Stormfly

Closeup of Astrid flying on the back of Stormfly

Team Hiccup and Toothless are certainly popular, but so are the other Dragon Riders and thankfully there’s also lots of amazing art to find of them too!
For today, let’s look at Astrid and Stormfly. Just like Hiccup and Toothless, these two are a formidable force, who work well together and complement each other’s natural abilities and fighting style.
Both dragon and trainer are accurate, fast and prefer sharp weapons over fire or might.

June 9, 2019 Fanart

HTTYD Fanart Gallery #3 – Theme: Funny Hiccup & Toothless Moments

Hiccup and Toothless walking on a log across a river.

Hiccup eating regurgitated fish, scene from HTTYD 1. — Food Gift: DreamWorks A.

The movies had a good deal of fun moments between the Vikings and dragons, and the long-running TV series had quite a lot more.

Hiccup almost completely buried in fish, and Toothless looking at him smugly. — MEGA Food Gift: DreamWorks A.

When the Vikings and dragons in the TV series weren’t learning to work together, or risking life and limb to rescue other dragons, they usually had fun goofing off or were out discovering new things in the Barbaric Archipelago.

Hiccup and Toothless both standing on 2 feet and looking at each other. — Two Bros. DreamWorks A.

These relaxed, fun and adventurous situations have surely helped inspire funny fanart as well.
Today’s blog post is all about fanart showing fun moments and adventures with Hiccup and Toothless.

June 8, 2019 Fanart

HTTYD Fanart Gallery #2 – Theme: Best Friends Hiccup & Toothless

Inseparable - Hiccup and Toothless - by ElinTan

More beautiful Hiccup and Toothless fanart? Sure!
In the coming days and weeks, I’ll not only be uploading and sorting into themes my favorite older fanart, but will also be selecting brand new favourite fanart as it gets sent to me and released.

If you have some of your own favorite fanart you’d like to see posted here – old or new – by all means send it my way! If it becomes one of my faves, I’ll post it on the blog. You can also sign up and post your own art to our “Creative Wall” on the forum. (You must be signed in to see it.)

Let’s begin this blog post with a more mature-looking Hiccup, sporting some manly Viking stubble. The next painting, will show Hiccup when he was just a boy, first discovering Toothless.