By(e) George

**binoched** · November 7th, 2007, 06:32 PM

Hi, just finished this, any comments and feedback are welcome

**ped454** · November 7th, 2007, 09:49 PM

The feeling of scale is applied well in this piece. I think your colours are too bland (Too much brown) and the image as a whole looks blurry. It reminds me of Monty Python and I like your signature. lats

**Elwell** · November 7th, 2007, 09:56 PM

I actually think the color is the best part of this. Check out the edges link in my signature, I think it would be helpful.

**binoched** · November 8th, 2007, 12:25 AM

ped454 - Thanks for the critique. It's ironic, though, that in order to give the sense of more scale, I added the wing, and in the process covered a fair portion of sky, taking away color variety and making it brown 'heavy'. Good points, thanks again

**binoched** · November 8th, 2007, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by Elwell

I actually think the color is the best part of this. Check out the edges link in my signature, I think it would be helpful.

Elwell - Thanks for taking the time to direct me to the link on edges, It's great fundamental information no artist should be without. Thanks again

**zypher18** · November 8th, 2007, 03:48 AM

Actually, Binoched, the brown heavy bland colors has nothing to do with the sky or other colors present in the piece. It has to do with the fact that the brown you used is the same brown throughout the piece. Give your color more depth by mixing up a different variety of browns. Reddish browns, orange browns, desaturated blues, etc. Your color right now is very flat.

Also, the body of your dragon feels a bit unresolved. Unless it's just part of the neck??? I can't tell. You have to make it more clear in the picture. Also, the spikes on the torso/lower part of the neck seem a bit unnecessary and over the top. What is their function and purpose? I mean, would a dragon ever use chest claws to spear something? And if so, then why are they pointed down?
Also, to improve upon the story telling element of your piece, demonstrate some kind of conflict or express the severity of the encounter. Right now I feel like two old enemies happened to just bump into each other at the super market. You showed the after effects of the dragon blowing fire. Why not show the dragon actually blowing fire and the figure blocking it with all his might.

**zypher18** · November 8th, 2007, 06:25 AM

here's a little paint over I did to demonstrate the story telling component.

**Fireflights** · November 8th, 2007, 06:42 AM

Your edges are really soft on the left side of the picture. That's probably one of the reasons my eye keeps on going to the dragon's mouth - it's the part that's rendered the sharpest. In this particular composition, it doesn't seem like the dragon mouth should be the main focus, so you may want to keep that in mind for future work...where is the focal point? How will you make the focal point the part of the picture that draws the viewer's eye the strongest?

There's a good tutorial here regarding the use of things like contrast, texture, etc. to draw an eye to a certain point in a drawing.

http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm

...and by golly, it looks like the author updated somewhat after two years! Goody.

**dogfood** · November 8th, 2007, 10:07 AM

I am baffled about what the wings are doing, where they're coming from, and how they relate to what's going on.

Baffled, I say.

**Machias** · November 9th, 2007, 02:23 AM

Originally Posted by dogfood

I am baffled about what the wings are doing, where they're coming from, and how they relate to what's going on.

Baffled, I say.

WHOA, i just noticed that too, now that you mention it.

**binoched** · November 13th, 2007, 03:26 AM

Here's an update to some of my errors

**Daggadoll** · November 13th, 2007, 05:56 AM

I think that the stomach-scales (or whatever you prefer to name em) are too big in comparison with the smaller scales, also his left wing is on the right side of his head..this is confusing, anatomically impossible and very unreal, he really cant fly like this, also I would go for that story-telling component from up above

that looks better, even if you only let the dragon breathe some fire. maybe you can shrink the jaw a bit on the back, where it meets the skull and the neck. the head of a dragon should be streamlined so that it resembles a dragons personallity, sly and mean.

hope this helpes some, other than these points it looks ok,

greetz Dagga

**Kaete** · November 13th, 2007, 08:34 AM

I think it might help to shrink the image, throw up a big canvas around it, and sketch in the entire dragon's body so you know exactly what is going where.

Right now the wings are very disjointed and look like either there are other dragons just outside the scene, or his wings have been broken or hacked off and stuck around the landscape.

**Softskin** · November 19th, 2007, 06:16 AM

I don't think the blur on the wings add any depth.. it's the wrong kind of depth anyways. They look like miniatures. Instead when things are far away try and make them less contrasty. Plus I would like to see how you intended the pose of the dragon, because i cannot connected the wings and body right now.

**kev ferrara** · November 21st, 2007, 11:40 AM

I can't tell if the figure is facing toward or away from us.

It does seem to be facing away, and that's really not the best pose to be in. Beyond that, there's lots of drawing errors and omissions that don't look like we're looking at the back of a figure. There's no deltoids evident. There's no indication that the scapulae are coming together as he extends his sword arm. The belt looks too much like the kind of belt that one might see from the front, like a robe belt. There's no arch or hump to the back near the top that would indicate he's leaning forward. The skirt doesn't drape realistically and the one peek of light in the skirt seems incongruous. Nothing on his neck gives a sense of which way the head has turned from. There must be a tug on something, like the neck muscles or the fabric over them to indicate from whence the movement came. I don't understand how that part of the wing got behind the man... it looks like a right wing, but the right wing already appears behind the dragon, no?

**-Pash-** · November 21st, 2007, 05:23 PM

Rather than blurring the dragon's back wing, it would be better if you were to add some atmospheric effects to it; y'know, eyedropping the sunset's color and going over the wing with a lower opactiy brush.
I also agree with earlier posts that you really need to extend the canvas to show more of the dragon's body. The composition seems really bad to me with everything happening -right- on the edge of the canvas.

Oh, the dragon's lower jaw is a tad bit too short, BTW. ;P

I love how you've done the textures in this piece so far. Man, I wish I could texture that well. XD