Kiriban prize Finished!
For
Congratulations!
This picture was a difficult one to work on in a few ways, so it took quite a while. The original sketch doesn't resemble the finished picture much.
I had fun with the colors and clouds. I wanted to try drawing some clouds again, after my last picture.
The texture was the part of the picture that I had the most difficulty with, because it overpowered the other details, when I made it too heavy. The parts that I had the most fun with were the mane, clouds, and the birds. Those birds added a lot of life to the setting, and I'm rather proud of how the sun shining through the clouds looks.
Edit: Improved lighting and cropped off a bit of the empty canvas
`ChewedKandi has certainly gone out of her way to keep the vector community on the right path. Always making sure that her talents are infinitely scalable, Sharon has put her bezier curves to excellent use, and firmly anchored herself as an inspirational leader. We're absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for June 2013 to `ChewedKandi. Congratulations, Sharon! Read More
Sta.sh
good work at the dragon well done details and shading.
Good work.
You made a good job with the lightning on the dragon - and even the dragon looks simple, yet... well persuading. It just suits to the entire scene, even though there are minor issues with anatomy (but nothing to be worry about) I must say this piece has its own style.
I little suggestion: you could add some subtle yellow/white shining lines to arms and the muzzle (the parts which are directly exposed to the sun as light source). If you want to try that out, take it slowly, so that you won't mess up your drawing
I did most of the work on this picture in greyscale, then added the colors later. It seems to be a good way to focus on lighting and atmospheric effects.
I've been working on anatomy recently, and this picture shows that I'm still not all that good with it, but I'll keep practicing and improving. Anatomy is probably my largest challenge at the moment.
That's a good idea about adding some more lighting to the muzzle and arms. I think I'll give that a shot, and upload it as a minor edit if it turns out well. I think I toned down the lighting and shadows a little, when I added the colors for the dragon. Strengthening the color of that lighting might help tie things together.
ohhh i'm getting off topic again.
anyway, sometimes it's good to get references from lizards or also dinosaur illustrations and try to sketch their basic anatomy in rough, but simple lines. worked for me anyway.
If you work with grayscales shades like that it's always good to insert some additional lighting effects in a separate layer. But only areas which are actually the brightest should be emphasized like that, otherwise it looks unnatural.
I'd love to see the improved version.
Great character, well portrayed and you did a great job with the textures. The composition you selected works well and I absolutely love the massive dragon a flight with the flock of birds, obviously enjoying the gorgeous sunset/sunrise and serene atmosphere. Couldn't love your background any more, like always... wish I was there.
The pictures seems to be missing something.. I know you had to adjust it but there is just too much empty space in the lower quarter of the canvas. I can't decide if I like it or not, because it adds depth to the open sky below the dragon, but it needs -something- for the eye to settle on. Perhaps another bird in the foreground or something. But it's still very good! And it does add the effect of such a wide open sky for the powerful dragon to be soaring over.
No real critiques for anatomy, other than I'm just slightly annoyed by the notch sticking up on his nose.
I'm glad to hear that the colors and textures worked out well. This one was challenging to work on, but I think I pulled it off nicely.
I see what you mean about the composition. I'll do my best to avoid such problems in the future.
The notch was one of the things I noticed from the references, so I put it in there. I tried to get all the little spikes as close as I could, while maintaining my style.
It would work better in a lower altitude flying scene.
I should think about some things like that when planning the settings of future pictures. It could be a great way to add a bit more depth.
Thank you.