WIP - (Not too common?)Dragon Illustration

andrewnimble 2016-11-13 20:56:37 UTC #1

Hey everyone! (I know the text included is long, but please read it before you proceed to the images )
I am a beginner digital artist and this is my first post here in WIP. I would like to share with you guys my progress on this new piece that I sketched yesterday and thought that it is an interesting idea, which maybe could also be interesting for some of you guys. Also as I am a beginner I have hard times to see mistakes or possible improvements as I go, so any kind of feedback from more experienced artists during my process would be highly apprechiated and that's also why I have decided to start this WIP topic.

That being said, now to the painting itself...
I knew I wanted to paint a dragon, but as I searched through references, I've realized, that dragons are in like 95% of cases pictured as evil or mindless beasts breathing fire, destroying things or killing everyone in their way. Therefore I've decided, that I want it differently and my intention is to paint a dragon with deep feelings, which would be readable on the first sight of the painting. How will I achieve it? I don't know yet, but I kinda like challenges and am looking forward to working on this.
Let me know what do you guys think! (bad idea?, good idea?, tips?) Thanks!

STAGE 1 - Thumbnail with a little detail and trying to figure out good values and shapes

Alboba 2016-11-13 21:02:50 UTC #2

Hey, I'm not really common with dragons but I think pictures or art from the movie "How TO Train Your Dragon" would be helpful, as they were kinda going for the same message in the movie as you want to portray. Good Luck!

andrewnimble 2016-11-13 21:07:27 UTC #3

Hi! Yeah I thought so too, and actually have some as reference already! ^^ Question is if I can achieve the simillar effect with more realistic painting..
Thanks a bunch!

malcom 2016-11-14 01:26:49 UTC #4

Hey there. I think this is an awesome idea. First thing I thought about was spyro the dragon after reading your post. I believe you can still achieve a similar effect with an more realistic painting. This picture I found of the dragon from Game of thrones can hopefully help

Just looking at his facial expression, it has an very relaxed feel.
Another thing I'm really enjoying about the piece is the composition. It keeps you focused on the main subjects and not allowing your eye to really leave the canvas which is a plus. Now this being a sketch, you really just need to think about your light sources and where they will be coming from. With them being out side, a top sky light( depending on time of day color will change) will cast overtop of them. Then you have some kind on sun light. From you image it appears to be in the back behind the tree. To me this says the day is either 1 of 2 things. 1. Sun just coming up early in the mourning or 2 going down in the after noon. Not to say this also can't be a night scene. Thinking about the mood of the piece, afternoon to nighttime are great times for this scene to take place but your the artist so you can make your own decisions. Hope this helps and best of luck.

andrewnimble 2016-11-14 12:37:33 UTC #5

Hi, Thanks for such a great comment! I really apprechiate that you spent the time to read my text and write this.
I think you just helped me a lot with figuring out the colors, cause at first I just thought of separate colors of the characters and environment, but not about the overwhealming color and mood of the image. As I want to show kind of emotional relationship between the subjects I think would be best to go with warmer main color in this case, which kinda excludes the night scene, cause in that case it would be overally cold blue. I think the best option for this one is the sundown, when everything is kinda warm (orange-ish) ?
Won't be able to do much work on it this week since I have a lot of schoolwork to do , but at least I have more time to think over it and consider more possibilities
Anyway, thanks again for the support and advice. I'll keep that in mind and hopefully update this post soon

malcom 2016-11-15 01:19:06 UTC #6

No problem. Glad I could help.

andrewnimble 2016-11-16 21:35:35 UTC #7

Managed to put some time into it today. Step by step slowly moving forward..
Any suggestions what color could I add to make it more interesting? so far going just with little desaturated complementary colors. I will definitelly tweak the colors at some point during the process..

STAGE 2 - added some color and started polishing first areas

andrewnimble 2016-11-20 21:56:56 UTC #8

STAGE 3 - Sort of finished..
I wanted to make it in time for this weeks' challenge so even though I would like to polish it a little bit more I simply had no more time. I am glad I even found some time this week to get it done like it is. Here's the final piece. (If anyone likes it, you can vote for me in the Amateur League Weekly Challenge thanks!)