A dragon's anatomy (for Malessa)

[Malessa]

Thank you Knightfall! I'm already a big fan of both the artists, my hubby, Cthuluftaghn, introduced me to there art from all the old 'DragonLance' books he's collected over the years along with dragon statues, etc. Soooooo, me being the artist, and liking dragons myself, would love to be able to do some pretty cool art scenes with dragons. But I must admit, I'm a little intimidated by all thier dragons, whew! I know I can draw, but I need alot more than experience and practice to come close to them. As you know though, I'm up to challenges, lol......

I like Liquide's idea, of using familar animals and reptiles etc. to at least grasp the concept, but your definately right about the bones and the like. I'm afraid I've been trying so hard to get a template of what the body should look like, thinking I'd worry about the scales, horns and bony structure later, that it was extra detail. When in fact, as you pointed out, thats the key.

I'm still going to use the familar animal aspect, but I think I'm going to find some anatomy pictures of the animal's bone structures. Start building from there. See how I can weave a little dragon structure into something I'm already familar with, as to not overwhelm myself, then become deflated.

I am beaming with delight, that you and Liquide are being so generous with your information, that is both useful and exciting to me! Thanks again guys!

 

[Liquide]

OK working on a new dragon I'll try to post (and aswell scan) later today.

The minot problem is that it, ehrr well got a bit big , it is drawn on a A3 format paper (11.5" x 16") and it covers more or less the entire paper so far

Well if I can scan this on my poor A4 scanner I'll try and post it later (A4 is smaller then A3 BTW )

 

[Malessa]

Great Liquide, can't wait to see it! Think I'm going to try another today, myself.
I usually work on 11x9 sketch paper, cheap wooden pencil and a ruler. The ruler is to cut off an inch on each side of paper, cuz of our 10x8 scanner, lol. Next time I'll buy smaller paper. Anyway, my hubby says half my problem with some of my sketches is that I start off too big, then when I get to edge of paper, I try to fit all I can in the drawing, which leads to miss proportions. So I'll try to start smaller today, so that I can fit everything I want in pic. Which is alot easier than taping several sheets of paper together and scanning bits at a time. I'm a low budget artist me thinks, lol.....

 

[Liquide]

Great Liquide, can't wait to see it! Think I'm going to try another today, myself.
I usually work on 11x9 sketch paper, cheap wooden pencil and a ruler. The ruler is to cut off an inch on each side of paper, cuz of our 10x8 scanner, lol. Next time I'll buy smaller paper. Anyway, my hubby says half my problem with some of my sketches is that I start off too big, then when I get to edge of paper, I try to fit all I can in the drawing, which leads to miss proportions. So I'll try to start smaller today, so that I can fit everything I want in pic. Which is alot easier than taping several sheets of paper together and scanning bits at a time. I'm a low budget artist me thinks, lol.....

I usually draw too big all the time aswell, but that is mostly my own fault since I love details, and lots of details in my pictures.

Will start to buy A3 and A1 paper soon for a larger creation area though (since I cannot get myself to draw small ).

Well I'll scan this as soon as it looks a bit better for you all so you can have a look at it.

 

[Liquide]

OK here comes a sketch/draft body muscular study of a full dragon, this is my first try on a full dragon so please tell me what you think.

And I demand that you Malessa tell me what you think

 

[Malessa]

Wow, It looks awesome!!! The muscles and proportions seem right on!

Is it me though, or is the bottom jaw ever so slightly too short? Its head and detail, scales and bones and everything seem perfect, but the bottom jaw? I dunno?

You know I'm really jealous now, right? Before I was just jealous, but now, well, hmmmmm, I gotta get practicing, lol.

 

[CRGreathouse]

OK here comes a sketch/draft body muscular study of a full dragon, this is my first try on a full dragon so please tell me what you think.

I hate to comment on art, since I can't draw, but I'll force myself to do so -- I know you appreciate our opinions (or something to that effect ).

The lower jaw is too small. They should have powerful muscles there to bite through tough scales (or full plate)!

The back left foot looks a bit off; perhaps it's just the angle?

The neck, the legs, and the body are amazing. It would be unthinkable to change such works of art; the legs ripple with muscle but stay proportioned. They give the impression of great strength, unused but ready. (Listen to this, I sound like an art critic! Kill me now!)

Looking at the neck reminds me of Smaug's speech to Bilbo, where he dares the hobbit to find a weakness, except that this dragon has none. I can imagine a knight charging up and breaking his lance on the tough plates.

 

[Liquide]

Wow, It looks awesome!!! The muscles and proportions seem right on!

Is it me though, or is the bottom jaw ever so slightly too short? Its head and detail, scales and bones and everything seem perfect, but the bottom jaw? I dunno?

You know I'm really jealous now, right? Before I was just jealous, but now, well, hmmmmm, I gotta get practicing, lol.

Well thanks for the words, I tried to practice what I preach in my guidelines above, glad you liked it .

And yeah the lower jaw is slightly short though, but I'll change that on the bigger version of the illustration.

I'll post the larger version when it is done.

 

[Malessa]

Although your pencil sketches are quite awesome. I'm curious, have you ever tried coloring them? The way you shade and detail with pencil, I can't imagine what you would come up with in color, I think they would be really good!
Alot of times thats when I do my most detail, is when I color, don't know why, but seems easier that way. I guess its because I don't wear a hole in paper with all my pencil erase marks, lol...

Didn't get a chance to work on another dragon pic yet, been working on tests and report card for son(homeschool). Hopefully I'll get a chance today.....

Can't wait to see your next pic.....btw, I think that your pictures are SO precise and detailed, that its easy to find something slightly out of place. Which is a compliment, because you TRY to find something wrong with it. Unlike my pic of a dragon, where you try to find something right with it, lol.....

 

[Liquide]

Although your pencil sketches are quite awesome. I'm curious, have you ever tried coloring them? The way you shade and detail with pencil, I can't imagine what you would come up with in color, I think they would be really good!
Alot of times thats when I do my most detail, is when I color, don't know why, but seems easier that way. I guess its because I don't wear a hole in paper with all my pencil erase marks, lol...

Didn't get a chance to work on another dragon pic yet, been working on tests and report card for son(homeschool). Hopefully I'll get a chance today.....

Can't wait to see your next pic.....btw, I think that your pictures are SO precise and detailed, that its easy to find something slightly out of place. Which is a compliment, because you TRY to find something wrong with it. Unlike my pic of a dragon, where you try to find something right with it, lol.....

He he I draw to precise , well to be frank I sucketh when I try to draw stuff in color, it for some reason always turns up wrong for some reason (mainly since my shadowing technique isn't suited for color).

I have lately tried to learn how to color B/W pencil illustrations in Photoshop but havn't yet gotten the grasp of it. A little note BTW, I never use an eraser when I draw pencil art .

I can however do some moderatly good stuff from scratch in photoshop though, for example this eye.

Still working on the dragon, it is rather big so I have to add a lot of detail and I try to make this one as near perfect as I can so just the shadework will take quite some time (not to mention that I have to draw the scales now LOL)

Well hope to see more dragons from you aswell soon, will try and post this new dragon later today (if I can get it finished that is)

Hope to hear from you soon in any case