Safira's Art for Dragons

[SafiraThePanther]

 

Hello there! Let me introduce myself. You can call me SafiraThePanther or Safira. I'm french and I currently live in Paris where I go to a prestigious but demanding school to learn to make animated movies and video games. But this also mean that I won't have any more time to go to the cave to fetch some eggs...

So I've taken this decision: drawing for dragons.

I love drawing, I love dragons, so this seemed like a logical decision! So here I am, welcome to Art for Dragons!

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Pretty simply actually! Read the rules, fill an order and wait for my response! But please, try to be fair with what you offer, you can't imagine how much work is being put in what you can ask for

Then, I'll send you a partially blurred out Work in Progress(or finished, if it's not too much work) picture of your order. This is the moment where you'll send me what you offered me, and then I post here/send you the piece and also put it in my DeviantArt Gallery. I'm sorry about the complicated method, but I'm really afraid of people trying to get my art for free and art thieves. So NEVER EVER claim this art as your own please...

 

RULES:

First, I want to tell you that I tend to work very, very hard on whatever I do so depending on the work that I will be asked for, I may or may not accept a comission if the offer is not worth my time... I'm sorry, but my school takes me too much time to afford to lose any. So now, rules, in short:

 

1. I have the right to refuse a comission if the subject asked is too demanding for the offer (like giving me a common dragon for a fully shaded and coloured digital piece). But still, you can change your order, since I may suggest a more fitting amount of work for what you wish to give me. Also, I am very likely to refuse dragons that aren't on my wishlist, but it never hurts to PM me and ask about it.

 

2. If an offer is interesting/original/funny/entertaining enough, you'll get it for free!

 

3. Be patient. I have a life, and much work to do for school. I can sometimes spend 50+ hours on a piece (though I'd ask for a CB silver/gold for such a monster ), so don't rush me or you'll end up with something ugly, I'll end up panicked and stressed and nobody will be happy in the end D:

Art takes time to be worth it!

 

4. I never ever EVER forget a comission. If I owe you something, you'll get it, would it be a drawing or a dragon. If you are too afraid that I might have forgotten, just send me a note on DeviantArt if you have it, or send an email at safira_panther@hotmail.fr . I check my DA and mail every day for school business!

 

5. No backgrounds. I'm sorry, but I'm so terrible at them that it is best for everybody ='D. The only kind of background I can provide is a weather effect and some kind of background cloud or gradient. I may sometimes give myself the liberty to add a background if I feel like it would make the drawing prettier, but don't worry, I'll always keep a background-less version of it in case you like it more!

 

6. ANIMATIONS! It is very likely that I end up adding small custom animations to my orders! Stay tuned for this, they will for sure make great avatars!

 

7. What may you ask for? Easy, we are all here for dragons, so dragons! Will it be your favorite breeding pair, a custom dragon character, an ascended version of your favorite dragon... Actually, I can also do other animals/creatures/monsters, so feel free to ask!

EXAMPLES:

Here you'll find examples of the kind of pieces I can make, with the amount of work needed to get it completed. The longer it takes, the more valuable the offer needs to be. Also, the more dragons are involved in the picture, the more "expensive" it will be. just a reminder: NO BACKGROUND

 

Regular sketch. (No shading, no colour. Cheap or sometimes free) (1-3 hours)

 

Shaded sketch(similar to the first type of sketch, but with a shading similar as the one seen here) (2-4 hours)

 

Lineart. No examples available, but it's a digital and clean sketch without any colour. (1-3 hours)

 

Simple digital piece(Inked sketch and coloured drawing, with no shading) (2-5 hours)

 

Reference Sheet (Simple picture of a character in a static or dynamic pose, with a colour code nearby. Perfect when you have trouble designing your character.) (2-5 hours)

 

Shaded digital piece(coloured digital lineart with a simple shading and a possible "character artwork" style as seen in the example) (2-6 hours)

 

Refined digital piece(Fully shaded, lineless digital work with as much details as asked for) (5-10 hours)

 

Monster of work, with 50+ hours put into it (Fully coloured, shaded digital scene with a fitting background. One hell of an hard work) (30-50 hours )

 

 

Feel free to take a look at my gallery to get ideas too, I have probably forgotten stuff

 

FORM

May I take your order, sir/madam?

 

Order: Write here the type of work you want me to do

Offer: Write here what you want to give me in exchange, and tell me if it is CB, how long is it's lineage and if you have it right now or it you want to breed it. I also take IOUs for Holiday dragons. Not having any right now, offering me a IOU for a Holiday dragons is the best way to get a worked extra hard piece from me.

Description: Write here the dragon (or dragons) you want me to draw. How are they, if they are different from the sprite and what kind of pose you want them in.

Extra details: Details that are not exactly on the dragon. If you want your dragon all glowy or surrounded by an evil fog, tell me here.

Other: Anything else you might want to say. Who knows?

 

WISHLIST

My wishlist is a place where you can look at what kind of stuff is more likely to get me to pull out something extra good for you. I also show the number of dragons of this type I want to end up with, so you can see which ones I want the most. The more dragons you offer, the more time I will put into my work.

 

CB Blusang Lindwurm(x2)

CB Nebula(x???)

CB or alternate Black Dragon, but I value CB more(x2)

CB Golden Wyvern(x1)

CB Ice Dragon(x2)

CB Magma Dragon(x1)

CB Thunder Dragon(x2)

Not inbred, from other ancestor than Bronze Ivy(x1)

Not inbred, from other ancestor than Penk

Not inbred (x2)

Normal (x1) ;CB(x2)

Normal(x2), CB (x2) [Note: can't I have a dream? D: ]

Black Marrow, any lineage, the two only need not to be from the same family(x2)

Shadow Walker , any lineage, the two only need not to be from the same family(x2)

Yulebuck, any lineage (x1)

Snow Angel, any lineage (x1)

Ribbon Dancer, any lineage (x1)

Winter Magi dragon, any lineage (x1)

Rosebud dragon, any lineage (x1)

 

 

[Daciana_Adena]

Don't think your form posted quite right, perhaps you meant this? =)

[U]Order[/U]: Write here the type of work you want me to do
[U]Offer: [/U]Write here what you want to give me in exchange, and tell me if it is CB, how long is it's lineage and if you have it right now or it you want to breed it. I also take IOUs for Holiday dragons. Not having any right now, offering me a IOU for a Holiday dragons is the best way to get a worked extra hard piece from me.
[U]Description:[/U] Write here the dragon (or dragons) you want me to draw. How are they, if they are different from the sprite and what kind of pose you want them in.
[U]Extra details:[/U] Details that are not exactly on the dragon. If you want your dragon all glowy or surrounded by an evil fog, tell me here.
[U]Other:[/U] Anything else you might want to say. Who knows?

 

Words will be underlined like this after I edit the text~

 

Order: Perhaps... slightly more detailed than this?

Offer: Hmm... I have 4 CB Shadow Walkers I'm willing to breed from, and can offer you a couple of those eggs. I also have several 2nd Gen Marrows I could breed stair-steps from if you wanted any.

Description: One of these Spell Savras, from Leayph~ I''m terrible with coming up with poses, but I suppose something that's around both fierce, and noble?

Extra details: Though you can probably see from the picture, I'd like those marks on him to be, well.... pretty glowy, haha. Maybe with some dark fog/rain effects wit him as well?

Other: I realize this is probably going to be hard, and don't want to shortchange you or anything. More than willing to adjust my offer if need be!

Edited September 26, 2012 by Daciana_Adena

[Verridith]

Oooh good arts! Your style reminds me of Aarok's, one of the first people I ever devWATCH'd on dA. (:

 

Order: Flatcolor or simple shaded please~

Offer: I can offer anything on my scroll currently~ I have CBs of almost anything, including many holiday dragons, so I can get you a gen2 of almost any type. (:

Description: I'd adore it if you could do my character Talos. I have a few refs of him, but there's a few notes on how exactly I'd like him to look I'll put down below~

THIS dragon --> http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs46/f/2009/205...y_Verridith.jpg as an adult? :3

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/6078/5talosref.jpg

Extra details: Adult proportions please, and he has white fur fluffs on each ankle. I did an adult dragon image of him here on one of those silly dragon creators to give you more of an idea, linked above. <3

Other: Pose either confident or angry? I'd love that. <3

[Moonbeam22]

Order: Monster of work?

Offer: IOU for all four Halloween eggs from your wishlist and two of the non inbred tinsels, one of which will be a Thuwed.

Description: My avatar. No extra details on him really other than the crecent moon should glow softly. I would like him standing on a cliff looking out to the sea, waves splashing up on the rocks. His head should be raised slightly as if he is feeling the sea spray. His expression should be calm and and happy, though he should not be smiling since dragons don't smile. His wings should be only half folded, and touch the rock surface. He should pop slightly from the sky which should be light, and misty with the sun peeking through.

Extra details: A siggy size as well would be great.

Other: Is my offer enough? I don't want to ask too much of you without paying what you deserve....

Edited September 27, 2012 by Moonbeam22

[626lavaheart]

Order: Simple digital piece to Shaded digital piece (which ever you feel like doing ^^)

Offer: I have a 2nd gen Ice dragon on me right now from a ghost mother. I can offer an IOU for a 2nd gen black with a mate of your choice if your interested too ^^

Description: can you draw my GON for me? (he's got a lil description on him so you know his personality and stuffs) just him sitting there holding his sign :3

Extra details: It'd be cute if he looked kinda crazy

Other: His sign says "My name is 626Lavaheart" but it can me shortened down to "My name is Lava<3 if you can't fit the whole thing.

[SafiraThePanther]

~~>Daciana_Adena:

 

You are right, slight coding error, thanks for pointing it out, I'm correcting it when I figure out how to! (I'm such an idiot sometimes )

 

Your order is accepted =)

Your offer is enough for this kind of work.

(I love when people ask for glowy stuff, it's so much fun to draw )

 

 

~~>Verridith

Aarok? I'm definetly checking out his/her gallery when I am done with this post!

 

Order accepted, I still have to think about what to ask for in exchange though

But if it is important for my drawing to have seen the first picture, you should host it somewhere else than in DA, I can't manage to see it and keep getting the 404 error =/

Also, questions...

*What exactly is the thing on his back? I'm having trouble imagining what does it look like behind the wing shoulder

*How does the wing membrane connect to the body? Again, it's about the thing on his back/chest, I want to know wether he has a little hole in the membrane to let it through or if the membrane is not connected to the body on it's whole lenght

*And finally, how many fingers has he got on his hands? I don't want to add or remove a finger by accident D:

 

 

~~>Moonbeam22

 

Hard work incomiiing! Whew, don't expect it too early then, it's going to take some time ^^

Order accepted, but could you

So, if I got it well... The point of view should be somthing like a low angle shot from under the cliff atop of which is standing your character? I want to make sure I got the right picture in the head

Also, do you have a bigger image of your avatar? I'd like to get a better look at the dragon's detail, especially the head (for horn placement, eye colour, etc). If you don't have one, could you please describe it?

And what size exactly is a siggy size? I will make a high-res big picture at first, but I want to have the right proportions so it doesn't look wrong when resized.

 

 

~~>626lavaheart

 

...You have one crazy Guardian of Nature

Order accepted. I'm interested in both of them...

How would you like the style? I think a slightly cartoonish style with smooth lines and shading would look nice, but I'm asking before doing anything. I'm thinking of something slightly similar to this.

(Note: don't worry about me showing art that isn't mine, Loubatas is a close friend of mine^^)

 

 

 

Note: I will not accept more than 4 orders at a time. It will take time to complete these, and I will take new orders once these are completed. But I will write in this thread my current progress on a regular basis.

 

 

TO DO LIST:

 

1.Daciana_Adena

 

2. Verridith

 

3. Moonbeam22

 

4. 626lavaheart

 

[Moonbeam22]

Unfortunately, I do not have a larger image. Scratch the siggy size thing, it will make it too confusing.

 

As for the angle, you have it pretty much right. Just make sure to make it a slight downward angle, as I want more dragon than cliff if you know what I mean.

 

Here is the description for him:

He has a sleek, somewhat slender blue body (same color as avatar). His legs are on the long side, and each foot has three toes with white claws. He has white spikes down his back, and a hooked claw-like blade on the end of his tail (also white). His wings are large, membranous, and the membranes are an icy blue. His eyes are the same color. He has two straight, white horns as well. Lastly, he has a white crescent moon on his shoulder that glows softly.

 

 

*NOTE: I just attempted breeding all of my tinsels but nothing was produced. I am adding you to my IOU list now.

[Verridith]

Oh darnit. I copied/pasted that url, so it farted out on me. Here's the true url, but I'll post it as an image~

 

^ that guy as an adult (: with some features from the other image (the dragon-creator one with the saddle (saddle doesn't have to be included if you don't want to; I would actually prefer the saddle to be excluded, but the other accessories to be included). ALMOST everything on the ref I drew is correct, except for a few adult additions. Features I want changed are thus:

- the markings on the wings. He has wing striping the color of the inner wing web on the outer web.

- he needs his white ankle fluff! (: and his butt floof LOL.

- as he's aged, his muzzle has gotten broader and he has some plated scales along the top of his nose. the plates down his back and legs have also become more pronounced, and stronger.

- his wing web extends down along his tail (like in the dragon-creator image, not the ref I drew). the plates there separate to allow the membrane to connect directly to the skin underneath his scales. c:

- the fluffy mane fur travels a bit farther down his back towards his tail, and is a bit fuller than the dragon-creator image (more like the hatchling one).

 

 

Everything else, go by the ref I drew~ Markings are all exactly the same. ^^

 

Love an artist who asks questions!

 

1. His fluffy white mane. It actually has a space between the wings/shoulders where the fur grows less because he usually wears a saddle, due to him having a dragonrider. ^^

2. The saddle straps (oh durp that was what you're talking about- ; just a generic saddle. think Eragon dragonrider saddle. medieval era.) I picture not going around in that area; I imagine them crossing over the chest with a strap that goes down towards the tail, but as I said before, I'd actually like it if the saddle was excluded. ^^

3. Three + the claw on the wings, 4 + the thumb on the paws (:

[626lavaheart]

cartoonish is fine :3

whatever you'd like to draw...

 

Also what would you like bred with the black? (I also have a lot of cute names for my blacks... scroll)

 

Also the Ice egg is now a hatchie... so I'll be sending you a PM with in now...

[Cori]

Your art is pretty nice. I noticed that you seem to struggle with lighting and shading, which is something that I've had trouble with in the past. For example, this piece right here looks like you put a lot of effort into it, but I would like to see some of that intense purple light from the flames reflecting off the characters in the picture and casting harsh shadows. It's really interesting how lighting and shadows can change a piece. Don't be afraid to play around with shadows and see what you get, and if you need help, photo references are GREAT things to use.

 

On a similar subject, your art would look much better if you increased the contrast in your piece. Make the dark areas darker and the light areas lighter! This piece is nice but everything starts to blend together because the value scale is rather limited.

 

Your lineless digital art also seems really fuzzy. Sharp, clean edges on for your characters will help them to really pop out against the background. And the amount of texture I've seen in your graphite drawings is great; I'd like to see some more of that texture incorporated into your digital drawings!

 

As a final piece of advice, practice! Never stop striving to improve. Study realism, study the human body and animals and plants and everything. The more you know about drawing realistically, the better your stylized drawings will get. A style can't work without a basic foundation of artistic knowledge.

[Verridith]

I totally didn't notice you did gryphons too! I may have to stalk for another slot after this. Many of my gryffs have been turned from site-critters to OCs.

 

Wonderful crit from Jackal there, too.

[SafiraThePanther]

I thought I'd just drop a reply here so you guys don't think I'm dead or something

(Actually, I have a lot of deadlines next week so I work extra hard to make it in time. So extra scholar work is going pretty slow at the moment...)

 

~~>Moonbeam22

Don't worry, I'll do a standard size (well, even though for this kind of stuff I use a Cineon sized file which is quite enormous ) and then it'll be possible to resize it the way you want.

And I'm sorry, but I'd like a bit more detail about the head's shape... Like, is the muzzle long, thick, is the forehead proheminent or more blending in with the muzzle? This kind of details (even though i'm not too sure abvout what I said, I blame the fact I'm not so used to speaking english for asking such questions so I don't know the exact words for anatomy details )

 

~~>Verridith

I can see the picture just fine on your post, thanks for putting it here! =)

Also, thanks for all the details, it'll help a lot, I guess I have no more questions for now!

Finally, yes, I draw gryphons too, those you probably saw belonged to a wonderful artist and were drawn for a contest, but they were not my first gryphons =)

I myself have an hippogriff character, even though I haven't had the time to draw her in ages...

 

 

~~>Jackal

This critique is very helpful, thank you so much for taking the time to write it!

You pointed exactly what were my weak points, I do struggle a lot with lights when it comes to digital art, because I have a very bright screen and I see stuff much brighter that it really is, so when I don't use a colour picker, it gets all messed up, and I always feel like there's too much shadow when it is actually barely visible... I still need to experiment and train a lot with shadows and lights to get them to look good enough for everyone.

For the flames, I actually ran out of time ... I have had two white nights to finish this piece on time, and at 7 am I had only the flames and the light they emit to do, but I felt too weak to finish them the way I wanted them to be, so I rushed the fire and made the purple light WAY too faint (thrust me, it's there At the moment I didn't notice that one would need a lens to actually see it)

 

The traditionnal one is actually way darker than that, and I got a few reproaches about how dark it was. I really used every graphite grade between F (including H ones) and 9B.

 

I do struggle a lot with sharper edges on my drawings... The thing is, I have litterally no idea on how to work with this, nor on how to actually get cleaner edges without using lines .__.

 

Be sure I will work much more on textures now! I used to fear backgrounds a lot, but I feel like I can give them a shot now

 

Don't worry about practise, I'll get to practise a lot this year. I'm probably not going to pass the exam to reach 2nd year, but this year I'm learning figures drawing, perspective drawing, animation, history of arts, character design, storyboard, volume, colour and finally 3D modeling and animating.

It sure is a lot of work, but I love it and feel like it's worth it: I can feel that I got slightly better at drawing in just two weeks. It feels good, but it's also scary. I know undestand what people meant by calling this school's rythm "intensive as hell"

 

Replies like yours are really what encourages me the most, because I actually get to understand what I need to improve. I'd rather have people criticize me than telling me it's neat and nothing more

So thank you again Jackal, it was very helpful!

 

[Verridith]

I have breedings open for a couple of my Halloween dragons now; but only have a very small window of time to breed them. U: What one did you want again? I have a Black Marrow currently, and will breed my Shadow Walkers upon request.