I first thought volcanoes had to have dark rock too but it depends on what type of volcano it is, I've looked at some pictures but very few are real close or of the inside of the crater which I'd really love to find. The grainy quality comes from having to shrink the pics (and compression quality, original image was almost 2 MB) they don't look that grainy when it's larger and all of these are default textures so I can fiddle with them. Now I like #3 the best but as was pointed out above it truly dosen't say "volcano" but it has the best look. I may have to use creative license and not follow Mrs. McCaffery's books procisely unless someone can point me to a more appropriate material. Thanks for the opinions so far. lsstrout : They're my favorite books too, first read them over 20 years ago and am reading them again as we type for the umptenth time. :) I plan on doing a series, I have the Pernese dragon 75% complete using metaballs.