I had multiple concepts in mind for this CAP, ranging from a Therizinosaurus with a Grim Reaper motif to a wyrm-like giant olm, but the one that both proved the most popular and made the most sense with respect to the concept was based on the
Shiro-Uneri, a yokai that's essentially a dishrag which forms into the shape of a dragon. Design elements I incorporated starting from the original sketch design included shed dragon skins, like those left by molting snakes, and fake taxidermy, with multiple bits of animal hide stitched together - animal-skin rugs were the first thing that came to mind. The latter ties into the concept of a Pokemon that uses trapping moves as well, since taxidermy is mainly defined by trapping and skinning animals, so it would be morbidly ironic for this CAPmon to be a dragon skin that's turned the tables on its would-be captors. Since the
Shiro-Uneri, being a yokai, is a supernatural being, and since it takes on the shape of a dragon, Ghost/Dragon is the perfect type combination for it. Additionally, the taxidermy-ish nature of this design lends well to the fact that it's either a reanimated dragon skin or sewn from the skins of dead dragons (dragon hide is a frequent clothing article in fantasy media).
While working and reworking the design, I then included elements from multiple different mythological dragons. The long serpentine body, whiskers, ears, and fur tufts are based on an Asian dragon, since the
Shiro-Uneri is Japanese in nature, but the presence of wings, while seemingly derived from European dragons, actually does have precedence in Asian ones as well. There is a variety of winged Chinese dragon called
Yinglong, which is symbolic of rain; this dragon is usually depicted with four wings, like CAPmon has. Chinese dragons have a mishmash of various animal features such as the claws of an eagle and the
toe beans soles of a tiger, which also fits the mix-and-match taxidermy aspect that CAPmon conveys.
On the other hand, the golden fleece tufts on the back and tail, the sheep-like snout and drooping ears, and the curling horns on the head refer to both counting sheep (because of the Comatose ability) and the Golden Fleece, which in Classical mythology was guarded by a dragon. Some interpretations of this myth show the dragon as being unable to sleep, and I thought it would be hilariously ironic for CAPmon, upon taking inspiration from this myth, to be always asleep, and still kick serious tail anyway. Besides, dragons do sleep on top of or around things they protect in many European myths, and also tend to be quite serpentine in shape like CAPmon is.