“There were two things in my mind from the start of this image. I wanted to bring sense of tension and conflict between the dragon and the evil rider, to push the emotional feeling in the piece. The second thing was that I wanted the dragon to have an eastern look to make him more unique and differentiate him from others.”
http://www.3dtotal.com/tutorial/photoshop/makingof_eastern_dragon_rider/dragon_rider_01.php