In its annual “The Chart of Fantasy Art” survey, Orbit Books revealed that a whopping 35 percent of all fantasy cover dragons were colored green in 2009.
Here’s an excerpt about dragon trends on fantasy covers: “Green dragons featured prominently on fantasy covers this year — 35% of the dragons spotted wore dazzling shades of moss and emerald. Close behind were orange/rust colored dragons. Although we have no actual proof of this, our best scientific hypothesis is that dragons, being just a fantastical mashup of a lizard and a dinosaur, tend to most frequently follow actual reptilian coloring… BORING. We were happy to see some white, red, and black dragon activity, but one question: Where are all the purple dragons?”
Earlier this week, the survey revealed that swords dominated fantasy cover art for the second year in a row. Despite the proliferation of sword covers, the pointy symbols appeared on 20 percent less covers than last year–a dramatic reduction in an infamous cliché. In addition, abs are in and stilettos are out for fantasy heroine cover images.