龙年主灯・传统风格:金鳞蟠龙与戏珠

Design the main lantern of a Taiwanese Lantern Festival for the Year of the Dragon, about 18 metres tall, in full traditional craft manner. Build a coiling dragon rising around a central pillar on a hand-bent bamboo and steel frame, its long serpentine body skinned in hand-painted silk and covered in individually applied scale pieces in gold and vermilion that catch the light. Model the head with the full traditional vocabulary — antlers, whiskers, mane and open jaws — reaching for a large glowing pearl suspended just beyond it. Paint flame and cloud motifs along the body in cobalt, jade and gold. Light entirely from within so the silk glows amber and the scales read as texture against it. Set the whole on a carved stone platform with cloud-pattern reliefs and corner posts carrying red palace lanterns. Add hanging calligraphic banners and lantern strings overhead. Show a warm night with dense crowds and temple roofs behind. Photorealistic, ornate, golden and magnificent, low eye-level view.