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Post by jabbro on Jun 30, 2009 11:41:37 GMT -9
Godofrandomness asked for 6 dragons. Designing and sketching these, I feel like I have taken a full course in dragon study. The first couple I'll post here in their native image format, but it is clear as the sizes go up that it will require me to PDF them and just post the file location. When it gets to that point, I'll probably just post a small image preview. At any rate, here is the first: The others will get more colorful. I figured newly hatched dragons might have some sort of camouflage mechanism.
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Post by buckwiley on Jun 30, 2009 13:53:17 GMT -9
Very nice! Looking forward to seeing the rest!
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Post by godofrandomness on Jun 30, 2009 15:17:47 GMT -9
HOORAY!!!!
You are the bestest!
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Post by Floyd on Jun 30, 2009 16:35:11 GMT -9
A nice looking little whelp you've got there. I like the lighting and it's somewhat mottled appearance.
~F
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Post by squirmydad on Jun 30, 2009 20:56:22 GMT -9
Very cool design. The coloring is subtle, maybe too subtle. It looks fine at large size, but I'm afraid it will turn into a grey-ish blob when printed at actual size. You might try more exaggerated shading like you do in the clothing of the human figures. But in any case, the design itself looks superb. JIM
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Post by jabbro on Jul 1, 2009 4:39:16 GMT -9
Thanks for the advice, Jim. I wanted this one to be in muted tones but I may have gone overboard. I'll play around with it a bit. I can always tone up the different textures and shading. I'll see if I can get a better looking one.
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Post by jabbro on Jul 1, 2009 5:15:13 GMT -9
OK, I darkened the shading a bit and added a contrasting undertone. It does give him a bit more color. Maybe too much, but I think it should help from getting a washout at a distance. What do you think?
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Post by Scruff on Jul 1, 2009 6:15:51 GMT -9
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Post by jabbro on Jul 1, 2009 14:16:24 GMT -9
Thanks for the link, Scruff. I might have to see if I can find something like that at one of the local book shops or through the library. I rarely buy art books sight unseen these days. I have bought too many that look good from the outside only to have a drawing style aimed at young kids. Here is the Dragon Childe. Maybe he is a little too vibrant. I spent most the day deigning a playing around with scale textures until I found one that worked. What I ended up with did not detract too much from the overall lightness and darkness of the figure, but I am afraid it just vanishes at a distance. At least it looks good some of the time. For those who have not seen the other thread, I believe I am going to try work with Jim and become a One Monk affiliate. The rest of these designs (4 dragons) I'll cobble together and make a PDF so that it can be sold through RPGNow. I'll still post screen shots so you can see what they are and what they'll be like in this thread. Don't worry, Godofrandomness. I'll still work something out for you.
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Post by godofrandomness on Jul 1, 2009 16:10:53 GMT -9
Wow these are looking great so far! I can't wait to see what the others are going to look like!
As far as becoming an affiliate I think that's a wonderful idea! Your style of artwork is highly compatable with Jim's, and I have been very fond of your work since you started posting figures.
Keep up the great work!
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Post by squirmydad on Jul 1, 2009 16:32:14 GMT -9
The red dragon looks great, simple and basic with nice texture. That's all it really takes to make a good figure. JIM
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Post by godofrandomness on Jul 1, 2009 17:38:05 GMT -9
I did a test build and the red dragon looks great. Out of curiousity, I scaled it up 300% in GIMP as an experiment, and it worked really great! The red is not quite as dark, and theres no pixelation. The texture on the scales stands out pretty well, too. It's about the size needed for a huge dragon in DnD terms, so it will make a great stand in until the rest of the dragons are finished.
Keep it up!
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Jul 1, 2009 19:41:43 GMT -9
I agree!
One can never have too many dragons in his arsenal!
Out of curiosity, what are the other dragons you have in your queue?
onemonkeybeau
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Post by jabbro on Jul 2, 2009 4:30:50 GMT -9
Thanks. I am glad the little guy works out so well, Godofrandomness.
I have a young dragon, that will probably end up being green. I have him inked. He is much like the other two but with a different face structure.
I have a water dragon, that will have no wings. Maybe a few fins, I'll have to see how it comes out in the final design.
Then I have an elder and an ancient dragon. Both are more classical dragons but with a bigger bone structure. The ancient will come out battle scared, and the elder is designed to be very spiky.
I am afraid with most of the larger ones that there will be a definite facing. Once they get that big the wings become most of the view from the back. The largest, though I have settled for a side facing view.
I'll post images as I get them inked and begin coloring each one.
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Jul 2, 2009 7:49:17 GMT -9
How hard would it be to create the wings in 2.5D for those larger ones?
onemonkeybeau
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Post by jabbro on Jul 2, 2009 8:42:10 GMT -9
For all but the last one, it would require a complete redesign. I'm better off just redoing the whole thing to make a 2.5 set if I ever go that route.
I'd rather not do 2.5D, yet. My skills are greatly untrained in that department.
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Post by jabbro on Jul 7, 2009 11:41:59 GMT -9
Whew. This has been a weekend and a half. I had the graphics card in my laptop die over the weekend. Unfortunately that was where my work with this guy was sitting. It forced me to work on some other things. I have finally gotten back to him. Here is a screen shot minus my usual tweaking of lightness contrast. Sorry it has taken me so long. If things slow down a bit, maybe I can get back on schedule. I mirrored this one after the artwork by one of my favorite fantasy book cover artist. Let me know what you think. Hopefully it is not too busy with all the color.
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Post by draggah on Jul 7, 2009 12:26:08 GMT -9
Wow! All of these have been great, but this one is just over the top!
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Post by tugunmojo on Jul 7, 2009 12:54:28 GMT -9
This is your best so far! Very nice ;D
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Post by onemonkeybeau on Jul 7, 2009 13:04:59 GMT -9
Holy cow, dude!
That is amazing!
My only concern is that I kind of loose the head because it blends into the wing. But I'm sure a bit of highlighting or line darkening will fix this.
Great, great job!
I love dragons and you've got some excellent ones here!
onemonkeybeau
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Post by buckwiley on Jul 7, 2009 17:03:29 GMT -9
Holy cow, dude! That is amazing! My only concern is that I kind of loose the head because it blends into the wing. But I'm sure a bit of highlighting or line darkening will fix this. Great, great job! I love dragons and you've got some excellent ones here! onemonkeybeau As a piece of artwork it's amazing! But I agree with Onemonkeybeau that the pose might need some adjustment to make sure the head isn't lost. If I sit a few feet back from my monitor it does kinda get lost. Excellent work as usual!!!
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Post by godofrandomness on Jul 7, 2009 23:56:11 GMT -9
Man that looks totally awesome!
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Post by jabbro on Jul 8, 2009 3:41:31 GMT -9
Thanks, for pointing out the issue with the head, Beau and Buck. I'll see if I can make some adjustments that will make it stand out a bit. I am learning that one larger model is with any two regular figures.
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Post by ghostgirl on Jul 8, 2009 4:10:39 GMT -9
wow. beautiful. the colors are just gorgeous.
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Post by jabbro on Jul 8, 2009 4:42:39 GMT -9
OK, I threw every trick in the book at him to keep his snout from vanishing. He should be sufficiently highlighted. Tonight I need to finish inking the water dragon. As these get bigger, I find that I have been augmenting my sketches to add more detail. It works both for and against me, I think. At least this next one won't have the scales to make it too busy.
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Post by buckwiley on Jul 8, 2009 4:52:03 GMT -9
What if the wings were a little lower and to the back a bit? Maybe then the head wouldn't actually overlap them? I'm not sure how to explain it - and I WISH I had a tenth of your drawing talent so I could illustrate it! ;D
But I keep thinking about the advice Jim gave once before about having weapons stand out from the figure's body instead of being in front of it. (Like when you did your Ogres...)
Either way - it's an awesome looking dragon! ;D
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Post by ghostgirl on Jul 8, 2009 5:23:21 GMT -9
this is such an amazing piece of artwork and the only thing i can mention in the way of a critique is in the consideration of what a miniature is primarily used for in a game..which is combat representation.
although dragons in any game ive ran were meant for non-combat confrontation by my players and anything more physically agressive usually resulted in new player characters. My games most likely are not typical though.
maybe an additional combat stance version would be neat?
*edit* on second look... he/she could be attacking something.. i suppose it is just how you look at it....
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Post by squirmydad on Jul 8, 2009 13:15:55 GMT -9
One trick I have used for layered body parts, is to give the front most parts a thicker black outline, this makes them pop out from the back most parts. This might be just the thing to keep the overlapping parts from blending together.
I do this with my cavalry riders, give them a thinker outline over the body of the horse to make them stand out.
You can also add a drop shadow onto the rear parts as well.
Oh, and I really hate that your going to really make me work hard now to make my own dragons even way more awesome, but I think I'm up to the challenge. JIM
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Post by Floyd on Jul 8, 2009 13:33:15 GMT -9
Simple gorgeous shapes and colors! Nice work on these. I like the scales. Very nice.
Have you tried tucking the wing in a bit on the (last) dragon, so that the head protrudes past it? Or does that make the body to cluttered and busy? or just look wrong?
Bloody good work on this stuff.
~F
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Post by abaddonwormwood on Jul 8, 2009 14:32:02 GMT -9
Is this one piece or did you build in in sections? I built could you take the wings off and show us the body/head combo - just wondering how that would look. I am not asking for this to be the final end just wondering what he/she would look like with out the wing framing the head.
Like everyone else has pointed out - Fantastic work.
Lord Abaddon of Wormwood
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