Dragon WIP

[sthelning]

Well, I figured I couldn't go my whole life without doing a picture of a dragon. I'm trying to get my painting skills up to scratch, starting with tonal stuff. Mind, some parts are rougher than others.



The part I think I'm struggling with the most is rendering a convincing sense of texture. I don't suppose anybody could offer some advice? Thanks in advance!

[heyguy]

Looks cool. I like the style you're going with. I think the values are good but I have one problem with it. I think the bottom foreground elements are too dark. They look too black. I can see a dash of dark gray on that skull but I'd like to see more values in there. I think it's a good idea keeping those areas dark but they're too dark right.

[Theeroos]

I really like this (: The only thing bothering me are the wings, I get that they're stylized, but they look more like balloons than wings.

[Stoat]

Heh. I really like this, too. You could overcome the wing issue Theeroos spotted in a cool way by making the wing membranes semi-transparent. A light behind them would be awesome, but probably clutter your composition...but you could probably plausibly see the background a little through them.

[sthelning]

Thanks for the suggestions! I worked on it a bit more; lightening up the foreground elements plus generally refining parts all around.




The wings are going to be a bit of a struggle but I've tried to suggest some transparency. As mentioned I don't want to overcomplicate them too much but still want a bit of believability.

Let me know what you think!

[Griffonnage]

SO cool !!! I love the stylisation and mood, it's really well done !

About the wings, well I'm sorry I don't feel any kind of transparency... I feel they are crackled like gargoyles wings that will soon turn from stone to life...
But maybe you can try to create some scratchs and holes at the bottom and some more folds at the place where they bend ? (where they are some claws)

[Candra H]

Nice. I like this a lot.

Things that don't work for me are - the wings. I don't like the veins. They don't run from or to anything so I think either get rid of them or run them from the finger bones so that at least they look like they're carrying blood out to the membranes. I also don't like the angle they're sitting at in general. The way you've got the light hitting them, and the bends in the bones, makes them look like they're bent backward and the membranes are ballooned forward. Adding more folds to them like someone above suggested might help with that, and I'd like to see more in the way of a visible join where they meet the dragon's body. At the moment the arms just disappear behind its back and it doesn't look very convincing.

Other than that, I cant really suggest anything re scales or texture. I guess it's about painting the light to make things look real so no shortcuts from me. I don't have much experience with, or time for, cheap digital textures so you'll have to ask elsewhere for that, sorry.

In general though, this is coming along really well. I love the attitude of the dragon and the figures, and the setting works really well too. Nice use of light and shadow as well. Good luck with the rest of it and I hope my nitpicking helps a little.