And so the first sketch is done. This has been called "the pounce" by a few people. He's uhh.. SUPPOSED to look menacing though!
Heh, at any rate, this is the standard muscle version where I detail everything up- and then scrap it all later when i add scales.... but it's good to have a base first.
Time for round 1 of changes/additions.
Dru wanted Draco to have feathery wings, which was not something we originally planned on, but i said okay since it would be different. He wanted the picture to be unique, so that you'd never find another one that looked like it. I think the wings help that, and i added flying feathers in the wind for dramatic effect. He's not molting!
Also gave him hair and the face scars present in the human picture.
We weren't entirely sure what to do for the dragon picture, so i drew up a few quick poses for example. I did this on the other picture I did for dru, and that worked well. I personally like #4 the best, but for a character picture.. it doesn't show enough of the character. Cool looking, but ultimately we went with #1
All characters copyrighted by their respected owners
Artwork is copyrighted by Nathan Horsfall
And okay, black and white stage is done.
Useless Trvia fact: I did everything from the above picture, to this one, on a plane going to MD.
And now we have a rich background brought to life.
At this point, it just needs a ground shadow and some touchup work all around.
The only thing I didn't like was the sky, which i also left alone after this stage. I tell you, there are 10 layers of blue on that damn thing, and it STILL ended up grainy. Bah.
And it's done.
For the record, if you're working, the fade off to white was done on purpose.
And the only thing BRAND new here other than the aforementioned shadow, is the eyes
He actually hit me with this 1 day before finishing, if i could make them electric looking. I wasn't really sure, but i drew them a little differently.. and then photoshopped it JUST a bit, to get the electric glow i wanted. And we both agree it rocks. It's almost Dru's favorite part of the whole thing. Sometimes the littlest things are enough to carry something. The eyes really give him a personality, and a sense of "don't fuck with me". Which is exactly what he wanted.
And this the the start of coloring. Well, I basically "finished" Draco himself. Finished enough that i would call it a night and do the background tomorrow,
Artist tip: When shading gold, don't use black! use a red-ish brown. black should be the very last thing, and doesn't blend as nicely as the brown does, for shading.
