Dragon work in progress

**Tiago** · March 13th, 2008, 09:51 AM

I'm new here and I hope I am posting this in the right forum.

This is the first piece I started working on after getting an Intuos. It is based off a sketch I did in my notebook at school (included). Eventually I want to have the whole thing looking like the head of the dragon looks right now (even though that part still requires some work). I am still unsure on how I'm going to paint the wings and I'm not too happy with the back fin right now.

Updates might be a bit slow since I have just started an internship which is keeping me pretty busy on top of school.

**THK** · March 13th, 2008, 10:08 AM

That detailing you have done on the coloring looks really nice. I personally think those wings are way too small, or lets say short, to get that weight up in the air. I would add one or two more of those folds on the wings.

You could try to make that back fin to have more individual parts and have little spaces between them, or just bend that one little bit on different areas.

**Tiago** · March 13th, 2008, 09:32 PM

Thanks, I'll try to make those changes next time I get a chance to work on it.

**Tiago** · March 19th, 2008, 11:10 PM

I really haven't gotten any further into the detailing of the this but I did make the changes to the wings and tried somethign different with the fin. I'm still not happy with the fin and will probably change it again. Feel free to let me know if the changes to the wings were enough or not. I have the next couple days off so I might be able to actually get some more of it done.

**softocean** · March 20th, 2008, 05:59 PM

awesome detailing and strong coloring

I feel that you could benefit from studying anatomy of lions for front and rear legs here. The strong deltoid muscle doesn't seem to fit to me.

**Tiago** · March 20th, 2008, 09:03 PM

The idea behind it was a tiger/lion type of body, only problem being is that I was working from memory and I couldn't remember exactly what their legs looked like. I have a book with with animal anatomy that I have used before but it is at my parents house on a different continent.

Anyone have a link to some good lion anatomy images? I'm not having much luck with google, all I could find was a frontal view.

**softocean** · March 21st, 2008, 01:42 AM

This animal anatomy mentoring may be helpful:

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=107182

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=107182

**Tiago** · March 21st, 2008, 08:27 AM

Thanks, I found a good link in that post that had some great animal anatomy images. While I think the front leg will work better for my drawing after seeing the lions rear legs I'm not sure I like it. Doesn't look powerful enough. I'll see what I can do.

Here is the link to the animal anatomy for anyone else that might need it.
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Sci...ImgsAbout.html

I had done these last night before seeing the anatomy images, I didn't like how the more cat-like versions of the rear leg turned out. I just did quick sketchs in a seperate later so proportions may be a little off but you should get the general idea. I'm thinking that if I just shorten certain aspects of the original rear leg likek the calf section and use the more cat-like front legs it might work well.

**Tiago** · March 22nd, 2008, 04:45 PM

Changed the front legs. The back legs I haven't gotten to yet, but I think I like their general structure and might just try to mess around with the muscles.

**BoiModl** · March 22nd, 2008, 06:17 PM

looks good! i actually liked the version where you see the muscle fibers better, however in that one you need to watch the direction of the muscles for them to be realistic. in this last addition... i am not feelin the front arms at all. i know its an imaginary creature, but none of those muscles would have any function, and it really destroys the integrity of the design. other than that, the colors and the application are working well

**phoenicorn** · March 22nd, 2008, 06:32 PM

Wow it is lookin good. keep it up. Are you planing on adding a background when you are done? If so what do you have in mind. I'm interested to see the way this goes so i will be subscribing.

**Tiago** · March 22nd, 2008, 07:14 PM

Now i'm getting mixed signals about the arms. Softocean didn't think the large deltoid fit and suggested looking up lion anatomy, which I did. Now BoiModl doesn't think they fit. =P

The current front arms are just the basic structure/muscles, I had still planned on adding more detail to them like the originals had, but I wanted to make sure they were more or less working before I spent all the time detailing them.

I am posting the lion anatomy image I used, which I also linked the source for earlier (Thanks to the links softocean posted).

**BoiModl** · March 22nd, 2008, 07:29 PM

that drtawing looks much better, compare your latest sketch to your painted version. the arm in your sketch would function

**BoiModl** · March 22nd, 2008, 07:30 PM

maybe further simplification might help with the muscle groups, since through skin, you wouldn't see all the muscle seperation. remember muscles work in groups.

**Tiago** · March 22nd, 2008, 07:49 PM

After posting the lion anatomy i went back and worked on the leg a little more, since it seemed a little off compared to the lion version. I did that before seeing your group of muscles post but I think the results ended up close to what you posted even though it could probably still use a little more work.