Caledon's Dragon Practice Corner

[CaledonForest]

Hello there. While I wait for my dragons to hatch and such, I wanted to be a little more proactive by entering the forum boards and put my humble art services to anyone that would like to have a fanart of their dragon. This way I can start to practice making dragons and fill a gallery of them, all for free

 

I don't have any example or demo at present because I'm in a new computer, and my old hardrive was taken away and wiped blank If you want to know what I can do, just post here the dragon you want me to create, following these few guidelines:

Must be original character of yours (but if it is of someone's else, type the original author to give him/her credit).

 

I'm not a fan of extremely cartoony dragons since I want to practice a more realistic approach to dragon art, but I will not reject a cartoon dragon if there is nothing else complicated to do at the moment.

 

At present I'm still unable to make fur right... It just, it doesn't work, but I will try to make fur whenever I see I'm able to do it right. Feathers, scales, horns and the like are OK

 

1 dragon per person at the same time. You can request again when your first dragon is finished and be placed at the queue (if there is ever a queue - I'm not that famous yet...  ).

 

Make sure you add some little description of your dragon, as for measures, wingspan, attitude, and you can also request a pose (unless you want me to do a default pose, this one is optional), colours (yes, or all my dragons will come out gray or sepia  ) and if you feel like it, elements to which they are attuned (for example, it is not the same a horn made up of bone and hardened hairs - like rhynos' - or horns made out of quartz).

 

You can request a few edits after the first preview is finished, but after I finish tweaking your dragon, it will be deemed as done and cannot be redone.

 

Patience (tons of it  ).

 

I forgot to mention, if you want to have the dragon along another object, the number of objects are reduced to 3 per dragon. If you want your dragon meeting with a previously done dragon (in this topic), you can request it without fear (but and obviously, every interaction must be G rated or I will turn down your request)

 

Addresing to a recent question, this is not a place to request sprites nor recolours of DC's dragons. I only take original works. You may request the size of the final dragon as to fit for a wallpaper for your desktop, an avatar the size of your choice, maybe probably for signatures as well (but provide the size of the signature to squeeze the dragon in it ). Overall the final default output is the size of a wallpaper.

 

Now updated with status bars Each square represents the current stage of development. When all of them are green, it is complete. If they are orange, is in progress. If it is red, I stumbled upon an obstacle and I'm trying to solve it quick (that might mean the stage can downgrade to the previous one in order to solve the problem). Black means I haven't reached that point yet.

 

Fire-Ice request (Kylikki): ▊▊▊▊▊▊

Wandering4Ever request (Styxx Dracusi): ▊▊▊▊▊▊

Sofa 3

Sofa 4

Sofa 5

Edited January 26, 2013 by CaledonForest

[Wandering4Ever]

>-> I'm interested, but out of curiosity, is this a sprite or a drawing, sketch, etc etc of said dragon? Cause I have a wyvern I've always wanted to see someone else take a stab at, to see if maybe they have more luck with his white/silvery-ness

[CaledonForest]

>-> I'm interested, but out of curiosity, is this a sprite or a drawing, sketch, etc etc of said dragon? Cause I have a wyvern I've always wanted to see someone else take a stab at, to see if maybe they have more luck with his white/silvery-ness

Nope, I don't do sprites, nor sketches. You provide the concept art and I do the rest on my own medium

 

I added a little more information at the FP to make it a little more clear.

Edited January 25, 2013 by CaledonForest

[Wandering4Ever]

Ho ho, you definitely have my interest now. I will scrape together what refs I've got of him once I finish off my college work. Should be a little later tonight :3

[RWyvern]

Do you do other mythical creatures aside from dragons?

[CaledonForest]

Do you do other mythical creatures aside from dragons?

By the moment, only dragons. I want to hone my skills with them

[Fire-Ice]

This looks quite interesting.... I can't wait to see what this will look like...

 

One of my characters from a book I am writing... I can't seem to get my drawing quite right and would like to see someone else attempt her. C:

 

Name: Kylikki

 

Gender: Female

 

Size: She is almost double the size of a human, and has shorter legs then a typical western dragon. Her wings are sized proportionally to her body. She is also a skinnier type of dragon, not the typical "buff" western, sort of like a western with the body of a silver

 

Appearance: Small bright purple scales make up her body, wing arms, and tail, but her stomach scales, wing membrane, horns, and tail spade are a more iridescent purpleish color. Her stomach scales start at her neck and go to the end of her tail and are a large, triangular shape, overlapping each other. The wing membranes are thin, but quite durable and have no cuts or bruises on them. They are not so thin that veins show through though... They look more like a piece of fabric. Her horns are round with a two bends near the end of them. Although they are longer then the head they don't extend too far away. Her tail spade is more of a triangular shape like her stomach scales and one edge is slightly serrated.

 

Pose: She is a playful, but yet serious character, so some pose that conveys both playfulness, but yet a sense of the serious side works for me.

 

Thanks so much! Feel free to ask if you have any more questions I didn't answer. C:

Edited January 25, 2013 by Fire-Ice

[RWyvern]

By the moment, only dragons. I want to hone my skills with them

Okay, well watch out, because do I have a beast of a dragon coming up in a month or so... >:3

[CaledonForest]

This looks quite interesting.... I can't wait to see what this will look like...

 

One of my characters from a book I am writing... I can't seem to get my drawing quite right and would like to see someone else attempt her. C:

 

Name: Kylikki

 

Gender: Female

 

Size: She is almost double the size of a human, and has shorter legs then a typical western dragon. Her wings are sized proportionally to her body. She is also a skinnier type of dragon, not the typical "buff" western, sort of like a western with the body of a silver 

 

Appearance: Small bright purple scales make up her body, wing arms, and tail, but her stomach scales, wing membrane, horns, and tail spade are a more iridescent purpleish color. Her stomach scales start at her neck and go to the end of her tail and are a large, triangular shape, overlapping each other. The wing membranes are thin, but quite durable and have no cuts or bruises on them. They are not so thin that veins show through though... They look more like a piece of fabric. Her horns are round with a two bends near the end of them. Although they are longer then the head they don't extend too far away. Her tail spade is more of a triangular shape like her stomach scales and one edge is slightly serrated.

 

Pose: She is a playful, but yet serious character, so some pose that conveys both playfulness, but yet a sense of the serious side works for me.

 

Thanks so much! Feel free to ask if you have any more questions I didn't answer. C:

Since you provided the first data of a dragon, I'll take your request first

 

*produces a notepad from her bag*

 

Can you answer a few questions for me? Because due to the lack of a visual reference, I need some more data about certain details, mostly about the head (I think the heads convey a lot of their dragon personality):

 

1. I suppose as Western she has a long slender neck. I really like Westerns that aren't like a crossbreed of a diplodocus with a bat, so the rest of the body will flow with the neck and tail and no bulky body will be made

 

2. The smooth scales are more akin to the ones of a lizard like this one? (roundish and creasing like thick skin http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmifbpics/4569516577/ ).

 

3. Is the snout narrow/wide, long/short, tapped/sharp?

 

4. If I plan to make her with the jaws open, it would be appreciated if you can tell me if her teeth are regular or if she has some more longer than others, and, if when she closes the jaws some of them protrude outside her lips or not (I suppose she doesn't have an underbite either but I ask just in case ). Also, bifurcate or normal long/short tongue?

 

5. As for the eyes, are her iris big? Covering all the eyeball or just a part so the white of the eye shows, like human eyes? Are her eyes at the sides of her head like regular lizards/dinos or are they close together? (like the eyes of a Chinese dragon - they are close together to give them a more human gaze - also, if they are close to the front it means they have binocular vision, which is used for hunting prey more effectively, and they are said to be related to cunning and intelligence). Slitted, oval, circle or no pupils? (no pupils would look like those gray aliens with big heads, like eyes of insects).

 

6. Fingers and toes. My default is to make 5 on each hand and on each foot (maybe with only 3 touching the ground and 2 smaller ones receding into the foot). I like 5 fingered dragons because they can manipulate objects with their opposable thumbs, and enjoy things like writing poetry (but that's me and because I grew with Ciruelo Cabral's dragons hehe). You say how many fingers and such, and if she has opposable thumbs or just a plain claw like those of lizards Also, just for the sake of accuracy, does she walk on the tip of her feet or the full foot? (lizards walk with the whole "palms" touching the ground and dragons with the same features have a pretty nice S gait to them, there's also the alternative gaits of bears, or monkeys walking on all fours).

 

7. You mentioned that only 1 edge of the tail spade had a slight serrated surface. Is the edge one of the sides of the triangle or the top or bottom surface of that triangle? (see the middle section of these arrow heads for an example)

 

8.Does her back have a row of spikes or triangles running down her spine or is she "bald" there? (some also have some sort of fins or crests running from the top of their heads and down to their tails, the classic triangular spikes are more related to cartoony dinos and dragons, but I'm interested if I must leave her back bald or not ).

 

9. Number of fingers on her wings. You know, it is not the same a bat wing with 5 fingers (index is fused to the middle one) or a wing like those of a pterodactyl (with only 1 finger to spread, more like birds). The more fingers, the more complex is to fold the wings. My default is 5 or 4 (one lonely thumb and 3 to 4 wires extending behind).

 

10. Tiny details, like the ears for example. We have the lizard-like ears/eardrums or the classic T.Rex/chicken folded hole, cow ears (if you are into Easterns), "elf ears", fin-like or webbed ears (I like these more for Westerns) or "pin-hole" ears (earless but they have still a small hole in between the scales for hearing, but probably these are more deaf than others with bigger ears). The nose or nostrils, if they are plain holes like those of lizards of if she has nostrils like those of T.Rex, a crocodile, a bulgy nose like those of the Easterns, a smooth mix of upper lip with nostrils (like horses), a trunk...

 

 

Hope all these questions doesn't overwhelm you. It happens when one lacks of a visual reference to study Also, I suppose it will help you to improve and develop more the description of her for your book

[TCA]

May I ask for art too please? I have two dragon characters, and I can describe both of them, give a sort of chibi palette reference, and let you pick which one you'd rather do c: Since I suppose you probably won't be up for doing them interacting.

Edited January 25, 2013 by TheCompleteAnimorph

[Wandering4Ever]

EDIT: Refs all gathered :3

 

Name: Styxx Dracusi

Age: Young adolescent / teenager. In his human form, he appears roughly 15-16.

Sex: Male

Breed: Riding Wyvern ('tamable' wyverns. Humans ride his breed)

Element: Electricity is his natural. He creates fire by using a gas sack in his neck. Expelling this gas he has two teeth positioned behind his fangs that act as flint. Clacking them together ignites the gas and presto, we have fire

Size: He has a smaller form and his natural form.

His smaller form he stands roughly 7, 7.5 feet tall, not including his head spines. Head spines included probably place him closer to the 8.5 foot range. Wing span is larger than average.

Natural state is Large. Even though he's young he's already larger than the average adult. His wings are very, very big due to being a riding wyvern. His breed is one that can become 'bonded' to humans by having sex with them (he has a human form. dont be screaming bestiality ), and in doing so they are essentially enslaved to that human. If a human were to stand beside him, they'd roughly be the size of his skull. (i dont do well with actual measurements.. sorry). Humans often used his breed as the fighting dragons. Electricity meant devastating attacks because he draws his element from the static caused by friction between his fine scales, spines, and the air itself (you dont want to see him in a thunderstorm. scary man.). Uhm. Yeah. before I ramble more onto the next part

Appearance: Clicky One. His muzzle shaping is a must. Clicky Two doesnt show his tattoos or markings. WINGS ARE INCORRECT Clicky three. It goes into a folder on my DA that has a good few refs of him. Sorry for low quality

I'm also still tampering with him cause he's in developement.... So feel free to tweak here and there. If something is for certain I'll tell you :3

He's a silvery-white color all around with very fine scales (i cant draw scales which is why he doesnt have any..) that are basically more like toughened skin. Styxx doesnt have true horns, instead he has five black spines cresting the back of his head, all of which are flexible; ie, he can lay them flat, spread them out, etc etc. no horizontal movement though. He has another four spines between his shoulder blades, three or four (havent decided) on his rump / tail base, then at his tail tip there are two longer ones on the left and right. He poses wing thumbs, has four wing fingers, three claws + thumb on his hind feet.

With his muzzle, if you draw his mouth open, look at where the 'bump' is closest to his neck of his top muzzle. There is a membrane that connects at that point to his bottom jaw. I can draw if you dont understand :3

Tattoos I have hopefully explained in the drawings I'll be editting in. @-@; These tattoos are elementally branded onto him, so they do color his scales and not just his skin.

He has turquoise markings. They follow his spine, but I only have up until his wing shoulders finalized. From there, you can play around a little bit. They're supposed to be sort of accentual flares to his silver/white. They're shown in his refs. They glow slightly.

Eyes are a swirling mixture of black, navy and dark violet with flecks of white. They look like a nebula. Slit pupils.

The 'soft' parts of his body (stomach, throat, underside, etc) have slightly tougher 'scales' then the rest of him. They're a bit of a darker color also, so a little bit of a deeper silver? Again, he's still in development..

Wing membranes. This is where you can probably have a little bit of fun with his markings if you wish. Just remember they're meant to be accents :3 I imagine them sort of like crescents following the shape of his arm and finger at first, then they turn into strips of lightning streaking down. If that makes no sense, then just think lightning The membrane itself is probably also a silvery color compared to his white-r body.

Forked tongue, very similar to a snake. He's sort of a serpentine dragon but not too much. It does have a little... pouch.. thing like snakes do.

Uh. Okay.. what else.... He switches between bi-pedal and quadruped as he sees fit. He actually seems to prefer quadruped over bi-pedal, so if for some reason you draw him walking he walks somewhat on his knuckles. His thumb extends flat, pointing in front of him and his fingers fall into line behind that. (i'm still working on the anatomy for that. I can picture it in my head but fail at drawing >-<)

Has a constant type of 'static' about him that if you touch him, you'll get a small jolt like static electricity.

 

God that's long.

Personality: Kind of a typical teenage boy. He lives on his own, as most his age do in their breed. Very territorial with male dragons, willing to give females a chance to explain. Hates humans with a vengeance. Styxx is willing to help but he likes to tease as his way of showing affection. Tries to act like he isn't scared of anything or anyone, and is all around a bit niave. Jumps into situations without completely thinking them through, and hates being proven wrong. ... He's kind of a jock, ie, popular guy in school (think football, soccer team), were it not for the fact he'd rather beat them up than be their friend. Very playful when hyper, he'll chirp and roar at you to see what kind of reactions you give.

 

Pose: Unless you're against it for some reason, flying I imagine him in a kind of 'you think you can take me?' type of curled, forward shot pose, with his wings curling around a bit? Do whatever you're comfortable with. I'm not picky

 

If you somehow need anything else, let me know! :3

Edited January 25, 2013 by Wandering4Ever

[CaledonForest]

@Wandering4Ever: That's a very nice chunk of data about your dragon, and it is quite complete. The photos helped out to flesh him more of course, and don't worry, if we need to change anything during the preview, we can

 

I have a few questions that sprung from looking at the photos. There is one which has like a "patch of black" over the head and a little behind the head spikes. I supposed those are the same material and colour as the spikes, and that are like the muscles where the spikes are sitting, since they are quite mobile. The turquoise brands goes then around the edges of these black "spots" at the head and neck (minus one arch I see there are no spikes there so no black spot). Correct me if I misunderstood something.

 

I also understood the shoulder tattoo with a double circle with spikes from the inner ring. Has he a mirrored one on the opposite shoulder? Also, the "metallic fire" from the center, is it shaped like a flame? Perhaps we must make an stylized flame for that center (not right now but I can make some examples for you to chose from, unless you want to draw one by yourself and I will follow that template).

 

I like the idea of the lightning turquoise tattoes down his wings. It reminds me to a tribal tattoo I saw years ago with the shape of lightning bolts The feeling of electricity and static, it brings me good memories... *

. The skin scales will be fun to make, and to create crackling sparks about them, even cooler.

 

Nothing else by the moment. I'll be working on this one this weekend (if certain companions doesn't drag me for a couple of matchs in LoL, but they are like 30 minutes each more or less). Nothing will distract me from my purpose of improving my dragon art skills, I promise

Edited January 26, 2013 by CaledonForest

[Pixxelation]

Out of curiosity, do you sculpt? I'm curious as to what you do, before I request.

[Fire-Ice]

No problem for the questions! I would have posted my attempts, but they don't really look anything like the dragon I imagine in my head, so I figured it would be better just to write it out.

 

1. Yep; that is correct. She is not a hybrid

 

2. Yep again for the scales

 

3. I have never pictured her snout before to be honest Something like the one shown in this drawing would be what I picture when I think of it now... Link

 

4. No over or underbite, and no teeth protrude out. I would describe the teeth similar to a dog's with the smaller teeth in the front and then the longer ones on each side of that with a few shorter molars in the back. Tongue would be bifurcate and medium sized in length, almost similar proportion of mouth size to tongue as a human has.

 

5. For the iris and pupil I imagined it sort of like this image... similar color as well Link And off to the side like a normal reptilian eye

 

6. Five toes, three down and two on the back like you said. I had never really thought about that either and opposable thumbs sounds cool, so I think that. Walks on full foot like reptiles.

 

7. One of the flat sides, like you stuck a knife to the end of her tail

 

8. Back mostly bald, but a few shorter spikes can be added if you think it would look good...I can see her either way

 

9. One thumb and 3 wing fingers extending.

 

10. Nostrils like a normal reptile. Small webbed ears.

[TCA]

If you like either of these two (link), I can give you more information and I'd love to see art of them.

[Wandering4Ever]

:3 Woot. I'm happy I seemed to have covered everything.

 

Uhm. I'm trying to understand that second paragraph however.. Which picture are you looking at? @-@; I'm thinking the one you're looking at is this one? If that's the case, the two patches of black you're seeing are actually his turquoise markings being smudged due to poor quality ^^; You can see them more clearly on the colored version of him. If not, by all means correct me

 

Yes, all of his tattoos (and markings, at least on his head and neck) are mirrored to his other side :3 As for the fire, I imagine it as if you were on the receiving end of a flame thrower, like a circular bursting of flame. However, by all means, I am open to seeing what a stylized flame may look like. It's another part of him i've been attempting to tweak because.. well. i cant really draw it -fail-

 

Oh wow. That. That creature beast... Jinouga? Just. Wow. o-o I want one But yes. I think that's all from me unless you've questions. And don't worry about it, really. I'm patient ;3 I'm just super psyched at having him done by another person. So by all means, take the time you need~

[CaledonForest]

@Fire-Ice: It's OK, right now is enough details. Thanks for the answers

 

@Wandering4Ever: The picture I was looking at was THIS. But if you say they are just smudges, then I don't need to worry about this part. I understood the end-burst of a flamethrower and I have a couple of ideas in mind. I'll do a few vector versions in Photoshop so you can make your choice, but that will be after I finish with the sculpting.

 

@TheCompleteAnimorph: By all means, feel free to request if you want Bear in mind I'm now working on two dragons at the same time too, so please, just send 1 of them and after I finish it and if you like the result, provide the next one

 

@PieMaster: In a sense, yes I can guarantee you will like it

 

 

@All: Thanks for stepping into my little project. I'll try my best to make them high quality so you can swoon safely I thrive for accuracy mostly so that everyone can watch their own dragons from a different "perspective".

 

I'm going to edit the FP now to display the status of the requests and the queue. After I have my lunch I'll resume work. Thanks again for the patience

[TCA]

Okay, well, go ahead and finish up for those guys before you start on mine. I don't mind waiting and they asked first c:

 

Dragon name: Aleisha

Gender: Female

 

Approximate size: 5 feet tall at shoulder, 9 at head when standing on hind legs

 

Appearance: First dragon in this image

Western dragon, not terribly large, with overlapping pale jade feathers covering the skin. Color is a pale misty jade with some natural variation, underside is significantly paler and with more of a blue tint. Wings are feathered like a bird's, and very large, with some very faint dark striping along the flight feathers, and a couple of spiralled gold decorative feathers on the inside of the wrist; proportions of wings are similar to harrier hawk. Horns, teeth, and claws are dark gray and very shiny, almost metallic- horns are almost straight, but curve back; teeth are all sharp, and get progressively shorter and flatter angling back from the initial fangs, and only poke past the lips when intentionally baring them. Eyes are large, red-violet in color with slitted pupils, and face more forwards than not. Blood, corners of eyes, inside of mouth, and visible skin on bottom of paws are blue, tongue is slightly split at the tip. Front paws are similar to a monitor lizard's and are fairly dextrous, while hind legs are shaped more like a tiger's. Tail is about 1 and a half times the length of the rest of the body, tapered to a tip, and the narrower half is highly prehensile. Neck is about twice the length of head from tip of snout to back of skull, and starts about halfway down jawline. Entire back is lined with reflective silver plate scales that are curved, and stick out from the skin at an angle along the neck and lie flat along the rest of the body unless intentionally raised, with significant space between them and no plates around the shoulders- these look like a crescent from above. They are thin, and you could stick your hand under one. These continue all the way down to near the tail tip.

[Pixxelation]

So, will we get to see your mysterious form of art soon?