(Whoops, I just realized that I have to put the final submission in the first post, so here's all the updates and process images that I had to delete for that).
Hi there, my name is Rachel, and this is my progress on my Art War 2 submission so far.
I dont have a name for this character yet, so I'm calling it 'Star's Breath' for now. The concept is that this is basically a space dragon made of star fire. I was inspired by the idea of creating a dragon that embodies the essence of fire at an epic scale, as this the element that they are often closely tied to.
Here are some initial sketches. I knew that I wanted a slim frame with an emphasis on the dragon's chest, where the heart of the star resides:
Next, I did some color comps, variations on the theme of a star. I eventually decided on blue flame, since that is the hottest:
Next, I did a couple of comps of the beauty shot scene, which I prefer to start with. These were the two comps I liked best, and I eventually picked the left option:
And here is the current progress on the painting. As mentioned, the dragon is made of a star- the hottest, brightest part burns in its chest, and it breathes this super-hot star fire to annihilate its enemies (or its enemies' home planets). Its body is formed around a semi-solid skeleton made of cooler star matter, and the bulk of the dragon is made of hot star fire that forms as the dragon wills. The fire is cooler on the outer parts of the body, and the dragon can opt to cool its 'skin' enough to interact with living beings without roasting them if needed (this causes the appearance of a semi-solid skin, similar to the bones of the dragon). However, its natural state is as a blindingly hot and powerful star god:
The skeleton is based mostly on a lion, as well as turtle (for the skull) and bird (for the wings).
Feedback welcome on the idea and process so far! Thanks 
