Hello everyone! I finally finished it, the aquatic dragon!!!
This painting turned out much harder than anticipated and took me a total of 8h, but it was fun and addicting to make.
I decided to draw and aquatic dragon because this whole month I'm dedicating to underwater world, with my main goal being to draw unique mermaids in the end. I've done several fish studies so far and actually this dragon's scales are heavily inspired by a fish study I did just a couple of days ago . I feel that the best way to learn from studies is to apply them to original work as soon as possible.
More about my drawing process
First of all I spent a lot of time on the sketch phase because defining and changing details is much easier early on. Moreover, I use several layers when making a sketch. The awesome advantage of digital art is that I can lower the opacity of a sketch and then draw a more detailed version over it and so on until I'm satisfied. You may notice that in my initial sketches I drew the dragon with legs, but I removed them later on as I felt they didn't fit well. This time I wanted to work on an Eastern style dragon as I feel that it would be a better swimmer than a Western dragon. Also it's a nice change for me as almost all of my dragon art is very Western as @plushzilla kindly pointed out, so thank you for the inspiration. ^^
When coloring I first started with the background, but after an hour of painting it I decided to scrap it. This made the dragon stand out much more and by removing the background I had more time and patience to work on the dragon and to add all of the details.
For the dragon I started with the base color, just like I did with the fish. Afterwards I layered additional colors over it. However, unlike the fish study, here I decided to use the aquamarine color for the fins and frills on the dragon's back. This change of color makes the painting less monotone and more eye catching. Moreover these colors strongly remind of the sea and ocean, making it more clear that it's a water dragon.
The following is where I started losing patience xD To make the dragon more realistic I had to remove the outlines, which turned out extremely difficult. In the end I mostly painted over the outline, blending it into the final work.
I used only one brush, the standard chalkbrush and I painted the textures manually. Also by using very strong contrast in light and dark colors, I made the dragon feel more shiny. This I accentuated with some very bright small scales over the whole dragon. My last step was to use an overlay layer to add just a bit more lights and shadows as you can see in the final cover art.
In the following gif, you can see more steps. I compiled them this way for an easier overview and to not make the post too long. :)
Dromarine- This is a young specimen; only 10 year old; of an ancient species of dragons. It moves extremely fast and gracefully. It's attracted to everything shiny and often collects pearls which it uses for bedding. Favorite food are shrimps and sea urchins. The urchin's spikes have no effect on the dragon's hard mouth and belly. Dromarine is most friendly with dolphins and often plays with them.
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This art was made by me @kristyglas. All rights reserved.
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