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Dracorum-Order — Dracorum Order Wildfire Cover
Published: 2012-12-13 20:49:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 603; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 0
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Cover >> CH1 Kite FlyingThis is the new cover for my graphic novel / comic.
Thanks again to those who came and watched me draw this on Join.Me. Since the last broadcast, I've been experimenting different ways for doing the background. I tried layering, lineless and using the artbrush. I've discovered that I shouldn't never change my love for outlines and not to overuse the artbrush for textures, as it uses quite a bit of memory. One thing that did change is the way I shade. I've gone for the aggressive erasing option.
I will be redoing the existing pages. The old cover can be found here. [link]
Dracorum Order Wildfire ©
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Comments: 38
This is amazing!! 8D I really love the dragons expression! Also, the anatomy is amazing as well as that marvelous background and shading! I really like it! 8D
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How did u come up with it?
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I thought about things like Batman and Spiderman, and how their symbols can be easily recognised without the need for words. This started out as a few drawings on a makeshift whiteboard. Originally, I did Dracorum Order with the Os as eyes. Then I did one that was a compass on a chain - the chain forming the D and the compass forming the O. Finally, I simplified it to just the compass, which is the Dracorum Order symbol.
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Fantastic new cover! Outlines are awesome, never a need to get rid of them, especially as you did so well with them here!
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Thank you!
I put this on hiatus for so long, focusing my attention on contests to improve my skills. Both my victories and losses made me change the way I think about my processes. I've stopped doing contests and having seen my art rivals starting comics, I thought about restarting mine.
I must admit, another thing that motivates me to return to the comic is my desire to steal the top spot from MLP under the vector comics category. It worked... briefly.
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Contests and requests take a lot of time, you're right! I'm planning on avoiding them myself soon XD. But great choice on restarting the comic! The style is awesome!
And that's quite a feat! Keep it up and I'm sure you can beat most of them. Just because MLP is popular doesn't mean that the community has lost it's eye for art, so you shouldn't have much a problem
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So amazing, I still can't believe you can do all this in Illustrator.
I really like this new cover in contrast to the old one. The use of landscape in the background gives the picture more depth and detail - as well as an idea where the story location is.
The colours are more vibrant on the characters that on the old cover, and I can see huge improvement in terms of anatomy shading/lighting. Well done this is really amazing! I love the fur on the dragon's head, I wouldn't mind trying that kind of technique on my wolves next time I draw them.
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Thanks.
The old cover needed a giant facelift - and so did Lazarus (the red dragon). Between the old and new, I've been entering contests and using them to do experiments with my art. I'm happy with where I've ended up.
The fur technique took a while but the brilliant thing about Illustrator is that I can copy and paste shapes that I've made. These are then readjusted with the pen tool, convert anchor point tool and direct selection tool.
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Lazarus is a really cool character, he looks much better in this picture! Entering contests and, well, just practising are great ways to improve 
Good point, thats a good way to do shades so you don't have to re-draw them all
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Yeah, go for it. Give it a try.
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This is neat, would like to check out the first page of the comic when it's uploaded.
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Thanks.
Old pages are still available for viewing. I will be updating these soon.
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Woohoo! Nice 
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Thanks. I got there in the end despite that bit of procrastination through our chat. 
I'm glad I got this done today, as I would feel slightly embarrassed not to have got this completed after a week. Plus, I'm likely to do another broadcast tomorrow, so I want people to see that I'm working on something new.
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On a random note, I managed to beat MLP to the top spot in the vector comics section. Briefly....
Ah well, at least I know it's possible.
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Terrific work indeed, I'm just blown away by the amount of time you must've spent on the details of the landscape below the characters, I like the different textures you've used for each surface. 
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Thanks. The crunchy shoulder and ruined eyes tell me that I've spent too long on this. 
As for the textures, I had to be very careful not to overdo it, as saving took ages. So I cut back, and worked on the cel shading.
As for the logo, I did several versions, including one that was the dragon and the "string" that formed the D. But then I thought of things like Batman and the Green Lantern, which used symbols that people could easily recognise without text.
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It looks amazing
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Thanks.
That logo started off from a drawing on a makeshift whiteboard. I hope to keep motivated with the help of others, especially my art rivals who are doing comics.
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no problem ^^
awesome
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My motivation comes in many forms. As well as having rivals, I go to comic conventions and dream that one day I'll be on the other side of the table being asked about my work. I also get tunes stuck in my head that I've written for this. I've been caught singing them once.
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hahah XD normally you can sit on the other side if you want :3c well here you can from the age of 16 XD you can sell whatever you want but yeah it would be nice to one day actually sell your own comic and sit at conventions X3
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It would indeed be gratifying to sell my stuff. But I feel the most amazing thing would be that if I had children and grandchildren and they asked me what I did with my life, I could tell them about this and the fun I had doing it.
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