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Description
A piece inspired by artwork from the book Dracopedia by William O' Conner. [link] This is one form of digital painting that I'd like to achieve so that's why I chose to experiment on this using his method. I think he's got a better scanner than me, mine is a bit dark and the paper shows its blemishes. (Either that or I shouldn't be drawing on sketch paper. Probably should do finished work on Bristol.) Anyway it's practically the same method I've been using on my graphic novel however I left the pencil to show underneath as it gives a partially traditional feel despite the digital coloring.

I have to say that pushing myself to focus on the parts I hate doing most really shows major improvement. Actually I think my backgrounds have improved a bit since I've started to look at them more, but I can't say I'm entirely satisfied.

I'm really happy with the scales. Scales have always been a big problem for me when I would draw a dragon and for a while I just kept them smooth. I couldn't understand how some people could get the scales to flow with the body and mine would look mangled. Now I understand a little more on how it should be placed after looking at my skin and then another artist's idea of dragon skin. I also just let my pencil draw the creases in for me because if I over thought how it "should" be I'd get something I didn't like and would have to erase. I also love the wings this time, they're a little different but still kinda rugged how I like them. (I like my rough-designer wings ) Instead of the usual four to five bones for the fingers I added more minor bones to enhance the frame. I took this inner wing design from my T-shirt since it had a great view of it.

In art class the other day I looked at the simple toned ball picture you always see, (in order to understand shadows) and I found there was a reflective highlight on the very bottom of it where I believed was just all shadow before. So, I applied this to the scales and it greatly improved the 3D effect on them, though I think I may have over done it due to excitement, it's far better than any dragon I've done to this day and I've been drawing dragons since 3rd grade. The background of this picture was actually referenced from a google image of mountains, but I just decided to copy them instead of coming up with something. xD Same with the dead tree things in the foreground, google image. I'm still working on my rocks, they may be looking a little better but I honestly am a little lazy and refuse to go outside and draw them. It's going to take me longer to learn them this way... but one day I will.

I may try this again sometime, thickening my dragons up a bit to give them more interest and probably add some color variation. This was just my first attempt so my next is going to get better.

Again, I'd love to see some commissions for these. I'll love you, I swear! Hardly shows much love to anything but the cat...

Mechanical pencil on sketch paper/ Photoshop CS5/Wacom Intuos3.

Description
A piece inspired by artwork from the book Dracopedia by William O' Conner. [link] This is one form of digital painting that I'd like to achieve so that's why I chose to experiment on this using his method. I think he's got a better scanner than me, mine is a bit dark and the paper shows its blemishes. (Either that or I shouldn't be drawing on sketch paper. Probably should do finished work on Bristol.) Anyway it's practically the same method I've been using on my graphic novel however I left the pencil to show underneath as it gives a partially traditional feel despite the digital coloring.

I have to say that pushing myself to focus on the parts I hate doing most really shows major improvement. Actually I think my backgrounds have improved a bit since I've started to look at them more, but I can't say I'm entirely satisfied.

I'm really happy with the scales. Scales have always been a big problem for me when I would draw a dragon and for a while I just kept them smooth. I couldn't understand how some people could get the scales to flow with the body and mine would look mangled. Now I understand a little more on how it should be placed after looking at my skin and then another artist's idea of dragon skin. I also just let my pencil draw the creases in for me because if I over thought how it "should" be I'd get something I didn't like and would have to erase. I also love the wings this time, they're a little different but still kinda rugged how I like them. (I like my rough-designer wings ) Instead of the usual four to five bones for the fingers I added more minor bones to enhance the frame. I took this inner wing design from my T-shirt since it had a great view of it.

In art class the other day I looked at the simple toned ball picture you always see, (in order to understand shadows) and I found there was a reflective highlight on the very bottom of it where I believed was just all shadow before. So, I applied this to the scales and it greatly improved the 3D effect on them, though I think I may have over done it due to excitement, it's far better than any dragon I've done to this day and I've been drawing dragons since 3rd grade. The background of this picture was actually referenced from a google image of mountains, but I just decided to copy them instead of coming up with something. xD Same with the dead tree things in the foreground, google image. I'm still working on my rocks, they may be looking a little better but I honestly am a little lazy and refuse to go outside and draw them. It's going to take me longer to learn them this way... but one day I will.

I may try this again sometime, thickening my dragons up a bit to give them more interest and probably add some color variation. This was just my first attempt so my next is going to get better.

Again, I'd love to see some commissions for these. I'll love you, I swear! Hardly shows much love to anything but the cat...

Mechanical pencil on sketch paper/ Photoshop CS5/Wacom Intuos3.