Quick dragon sketch
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Aug 232008
Quick dragon sketch
Was noodling around with a dragon to add to a Metaplace world I was fiddling with, and sketched this. Then I ran it thru a few Photoshop filters. Been a long time since I put a doodle up on the blog, so here it is.
This was done first with Adobe Sketchbook Pro on my tablet, using “pencils” “airbrush” and “paintbrush.” Then I brought it into Photoshop and filtered one layer with charcoal, another with craquelure, and blended the two together with around a 60% opacity. For comparison, the dragon’s head used to look like this.
His wings don’t line up. Oh well. 🙂
21 Responses to “Quick dragon sketch”
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Raph wrote:
Good! Artists are always trying to create perfect symmetry, but perfect symmetry is always so unnatural. Everyone has an ear that is higher than their other ear!
However, it seems like asymmetric wings would – in flight – have consequences that are more dire than asymmetric ears. 🙂
Excellent Job. I would put some legs below it…to me it looks like it is missing them.
Spaz wrote:
A dragon, which was born a dragon with asymmetric wings, would undoubtedly be unaware of those consequences, having learned to fly with asymmetric wings.
Who knows what we could do with symmetric ears? 😉
I had legs on there but then I removed them because it looked sleeker without. It’s a fantasy creature, who cares? 🙂
Raph:
Imagine how your dragon would move on the ground without legs. This dragon would most likely crawl, using its winged arms as though in a prone position.
I think this dragon would also use its powerful wings to take off from a stationary position since, without legs, the dragon can’t build up enough forward velocity.
I’d like to see a sketch of this dragon on the ground. Would be pretty creepy to see this creature crawling and slithering toward you.
As for the “who cares” bit, well, the dragons in Dragon Wars were crap.
You know how some sharks never stop swimming forward their entire lives? I imagined this dragon, in similar fashion, never lands on the ground for his entire life and remains hovering even in sleep. His wings automatically flap at a pace that keeps him just barely aloft.
Cool. The perspective is somewhat strange (the wing futher away should be smaller etc).
Speaking of dragons crawling, did anyone see the documentary on how dragons might have evolved if they were real? It explained everything from flame breath to flight.
I don’t remember all the small details, but they had their fictional-real dragons as having extra sacks behind their lungs, which trapped gas from the meat they ate. This gas, being lighter than air, helped them to fly. It also was the fuel for their flame breath, which was activated when this gas (and I forget what it was exactly) was belched up and went past platinum that was trapped in their mouths from eating rock, which was something they did as they grew up, and the gas/platinum reaction is a real thing. Like a puppy chewing on everything because of their teething. The platinum sources were, I think, in volcanic rock formations.
So your legless dragon might be able to walk on it’s wings due to some lighter than air gas in lung-like sacks.
Just sayin’.
I drew him for isometric, actually. 🙂
That explains a lot. But the right wing is approx 15% larger than the left one, maybe a local rescaling of the wings would fix the odd feeling I am getting. It still looks good the way it is, though.
Check out http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/239433 for some ideas how to add legs :^)
A legless dragon could also just dive into the water and sink to the bottom when sleeping, if it could breathe water. Launching out of the water into the sky wouldn’t be too hard with a strong tail. But I prefer Chinese dragons. 😛
Michael Chui:
Like a manta ray! That can fly.
Chinese dragons aren’t real dragons; they’re snakes. Great for parades though.
Fixed. 😛
Amaranthar:
What do you mean, “if they were real”? *confused*
Yeah, If they were real. I found some info on it here.
It’s actually a movie that’s done as a fake documentary. The trailer’s pretty cool. I didn’t see the beginning, and it looks slightly different than what I remember, but it’s the same ideas. What I saw may have been a “documentary” on the movie. Or something like that. I think I saw it on “Animal Planet”.
That reminds me of Runesquest. They had dragons (4-legged), wyverns (2-legged), and wyrms (no legs). They just sort of slithered about like snakes.
I thought that Animal Planet documentary was kind of interesting, but I’m tired of dragons as brute animals. I want more intelligent Sean Connery dragons singing to women. Nobody does those anymore. 😛
Runescape was a good game. I always wished their combat system was the basis for an MMORPG. But that kind of game would have to offer other things for fun on a routine basis, because the combat crippling affects make it too short and unforgiving.
I almost commented too on the Wyrms in Runescape. Snake bodies, wings, Dragon head, and I think they were the most intelligent of the three species. I can’t remember if they had spells.
I agree on the intelligence of Dragons in games. I’d love to see a MMORPG with GM played Dragons as both good and evil beasts, persistent in the game’s story, until death anyways. Dragons deserve a special place, as opposed to just another MOB.
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/Human_Histories:_Lanival%27s_Tale#Lanival.27s_Victory
Couldn’t resist. :p No, they never appear in the game itself. (Well, Silduaa did once, I believe.)
Michael, every once in a while I read something that really strikes me as well written. I’m talking about specific lines, so maybe “well played” would be better words to choose.
I bowed my head. “It is –”
“Gracious, we know,” Silduaa purred, his eyes slitting wide, then tight slowly. “We have our reasons.”
This not only played on the personality of Silduaa that was just beginning to bud in my head, but gave it strength and depth in just a few words and made it bloom. It was extremely “well played”, and not only instantly built the persona of Silduaa, but made me chuckle to boot.
Yes, something on that order played out inside of an MMORPG, giving it life and depth with a human touch that no program can ever do.