Lei Tien Leung: Chinese Dragon Relief

[Cardinal]

Hi everyone,
this is my first time posting over at the concept art forum although I've popped in to have a look several times over the last few years. I normally post over at the clubhouse sculptors forum (I see a few of the members also post here) and thought it was about time I joined you guys here too.

Anyway here's a piece I've been working on recently...it's a chinese dragon which I drew several years ago and never got round to painting but recently decied to turn it into a relief sculpture. I was inspired to do the drawing when I was studying chinese at school many moons ago - I asked the teacher for a chinese name and she suggested Lei Tien Leung which sort of means 'Thunderous emperor dragon from the heavens' (or at least that's what I was told - seems to make sense though from what I know of the individual words ). I did a bit of research on what chinese dragons should look like and came up with a rough sketch that turned into the following. The wave at the bottom is basically the great wave at kanagawa (from an old japanese print) but for the relief I decided to sculpt my 'own' wave':











The tablet is slightly bigger than A3 size but when I am finished sculpting I'll cut it out to exactly A3 before molding and casting it.
Hope you like and thanks for looking,
Scott

[maddmaestro]

very very cool, will you be adding chinese characters to this as well, or just as is? i love way it flows from concept to the realization. excellent work!!!!

[Cardinal]

thanks maddmaestro, yeah I will be adding the characters to it - I think I'll try and make some raised brush strokes that will hopefully represent the rainbow calligraphy but if it doesn't work well I'll probably just paint them on the finished piece. thanks for looking.

[Nightblue]

The wave painting you mentioned is Japanese, and the dragon's mustache makes it look more Japanese than Chinese. Traditionally Chinese dragons are often shown with cloud patterns, which can often be seen on Chinese vases. With these said, I like how it's going so far Keep up the good work!

Another thing, if you are planning to add the Chinese characters, my suggestion would be find a person who has practiced calligraphy, or just find existing characters from old calligraphy. It makes a big difference to people who speak the language and makes your piece look much more polished.

[Izi]

I love relief sculpture, this looks great....I don't care for the snout it looks like his face was cut off (I am used to the longer snout of the classical chinese version)

His claws and the wave are perfect, I think

[Cardinal]

Thanks guys - your comments are much appreciated.

Nightblue - thanks. Yeah I was a bit of a dumbass really. I was just typing without thinking (given that I was talking about chinese classes) and forgot that the picture was japanese given that it's part of the 36 views of Mt Fuji...! Have amended my post accordingly!!

Good idea - I'll certainly consider getting in contact with a few friends about getting the calligraphy done correctly (from comments I've heard about t-shirt slogans that make absolutely no sense and what have you it'll probably be worth it). Out of interest do the characters in the picture shown make any sense at all?
As for the mustache and type of dragon, well my expertise doesn't stretch that far I'm afraid and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two types. I merely did some background reading and several web searches for 'chinese dragons' several years ago and used that as reference for the basic features to include. I guess its more of a generic dragon then if it is incorporating features from both!

Naomi - thanks also, Yeah I can sorta see where you're coming from (he does look a bit piggy in the sketch, lol!) and I can see why you prefer the longer snout, I guess I was inadvertently trying to steer away from that and again I think the reference material I had pretty short snouts. Anyway, glad you like the waves though and claws.
Thnks.
Scott