making counterfeit dragons for fun and profit (mostly fun)

[mm-d]

Quote

You've entered a part of the cave you think you've never seen before: the surrounding area is vast, sweeping... and vacant. Only stalagmites and shadows surround you. A faint smell that reminds you of something serpentine lingers in the air, though it's obscure enough to make you question if it means dragons or otherwise.

 

The easiest course of action would be to retrace your steps, but you hear the faint scuffling of footsteps. The shadows are too blurred and deep to differentiate person, creature, and rock. You hear a voice: timid; wavering.

 

"Hey," it manages. "Wanna buy a dragon?"

 

despite what the blurb and the title implies, i'm not selling anything monetarily. (well, technically my commissions are open, but i don't think i'm allowed to sell anything through the forums?) instead i want a space to dump all of my dragon ideas and designwork because i could, should, and would. this is less an art thread and more a "i'm too shy to concretely pitch dragon ideas right now but i want to put them somewhere" thread, so it'll be a combination of musing, prose, and art. mostly art. and musing. and a little bit of prose.

 

hopefully my purposefully redundant and awkward writing style + diction isn't annoying lmao. prose (like the quote) will have MUCH better grammar than what i'm using right now

 

dergons i've tried contributing to:

actually i decided to delete this part because it'd make my life easier. ^q^ you may see me lurking about the DR board, though!

 

original dergon ideas (may submit):

• Glow-wyrm Eel (MAY REVISE)
• Whatever this one is
• Ice-elemental Eastern Dragon (NEEDS LEGS)

 

misc dragon sprites (done for practice, you'll have to convince me):

• Fleshgal just a humble fleshgal (WIP)

 

ok thanks bye

 

Edited October 9, 2020 by mm-d

[mm-d]

reserved so i can dump all of my spritework here lel

[mm-d]

ok sorry for the triple post it's time for me to actually post some of my dragons in here

 

the part where md posts some dragons in here

while i'm not necessarily holding myself to this standard every time i post here, i would like to illustrate my thought process a little bit as i pontificate on my digital adoptable fandragon ideas. it'll be small stuff, like observations of the site, or something that i wanted to see, or even just a random thought like "what if cacti were real." (side note: i know for a fact that cacti aren't real, i live in texas and i see them all the time. absolutely fake)

i'll also post an artistic process whenever possible, but admittedly it can tend to be very "draw the rest of the owl" if i really get into it. you can see this in action literally whenever i start coloring anything, because i enter a trance and when i come to 3 hours have passed and i've accidentally rendered an entire painting again

 

EDIT: UGH the editor is getting on my nerves, i accidentally nested the big boy ideas with the little baby ideas and i can't get it out. 😕 anyways i have a fleshed out dragon idea called Glow-worm Eels and it's in there, there's actual substantial information and i can't. edit it. yay

 

little baby ideas

this is a list of stuff i'd like to expand on in the future, but i only really have the concept of it. feel free to take it and run with it, but be wary that i still would like to try my own interpretation.

 

Succulent Dragon

• found in the desert, probably common/super common, life elemental affinity. maybe earth too?
• there's one bajillion varieties of real world succulents, so maybe it'd be a specific succulent dragon? that or it could be a vivillon-esque thing (vivillon being a butterfly pokemon known for its various patterned wings)
• though, the idea of like, the dragon having a bunch of varieties/alts that can only be acquired through breeding specific other varieties. like, three main succ dragon varieties, then a version for each combination... and if we REALLY wanted to go hogwild and make the coders' jobs harder than they already are, there could be alts (or a single alt, which feels more doable from an artist's perspective alone) from breeding the hybrid alts.
• i also have the really stupid idea of like, the egg instead visually being a cutting of the parent's tail. the hatching sequence is the cutting slowly growing itself out, and then suddenly? dragon! but i'm scared it's a bit too lore-breaking (as canonically baby dragons just chill out in their eggs until they feel safe enough to emerge). maybe the dead egg could be a withered cutting or something.
• though this seemingly asexual reproduction has me wondering if it makes sense for a succulent dragon to be big... maybe if it were pygmy? man as we go forward though it's gonna become really clear that i have way too many pygmy ideas
• man the egg stuff REALLY got me considering the succulent dragon. darn it!

 

Gamer d,Ragon

• Stay with me on this one,
• It ,s's a dragon ..................................
• .........THAT LIKES TO PLAY GAMES

 

Eggshell Drake

• y'know the pokemon togepi, the one reminiscent of a hatchling chick still chillin' in its shell? what if that, but dragon?
• well, thinking about it i thought it'd be cuter if it was a drake, because funny dogy dragon :]
• it could go one of two ways: it's a disproportionately small drake in a big ol' egg, or it's a normal-sized drake that likes to collect eggshells (or just looks like them)
• maybe it could be kinda like a cuckoo where lore-wise it's dropped into other dragons' nests and it just goes ham. would the dragons attack the eggshell baby though? hm
• the thought of the drake with a basilisk-like stature that runs around like an idiot... it's very endearing to me

 

"Ugly Duckling" Dragon (or reverse "Ugly Duckling?")

• i'm both fascinated and entertained whenever something has a strong contrast with another when they're juxtaposed together. i know there's already a few dragons that have this going on, particularly the swallowtail dragon, aqualis dragon, and alcedine wyvern, but personally i wanna push it to the EXTREME
• every single stage of growth (aside from the hatching sequence) being different and honestly barely even looking related to each other. the lore of the dragon could be like, "in the past people believed that their hatchlings were hidden from sight. turns out their babies just really look like pigeons for some reason" (OBVIOUSLY not them looking like pigeons but like, just looking VERY inextricably different. and the parents probably leaving the hatchling after it grows wings or something)
• oh i'm not even stopping there
• the sexual dimorphism should also be insane. i said it
• every single stage, every gender, extremely different design. OH MY GOD TERRAE DRAGONS EVEN OMIT WINGS FOR THE FEMALES. THIS ONLY ENABLES ME MORE
• it's hell on earth for artists, but an absolute paradise for masochistic artists like me

 

A dragon that eats soup

• It makes the soup.
• It bathes in the soup.
• It's molded by the soup.
• death elemental affinity

Whatever this golden pygmy is

• 
• i just wanted to make another pygmy eastern dragon but i wanted it to be gold so i made this one
• look at their eyes

 

Singing Dragon / Another Screaming Dragon

• just a dragon that has an affinity to make noises/music
• found this little guy screaming screaming screaming

 

big boy ideas

these are some that i've thought about in-depth a bit more before making this post! this means the content is juicier and more fun to eat

 

while waiting impatiently for my eggs to hatch and in-between mental tasks, i've been bumming around the wikia for a bit. and i also kinda noticed that some types of morphologies / affinities / so on weren't very common, or didn't exist yet! kinda like thinking about a pokemon type match-up that didn't exist yet and trying to think of a fakemon that could fill the type's niche (yes i know i keep referring to pokemon).

 

there will be some ideas i hatched that i wanna ramble about in the future (in particular: an easter ice dragon and some amphiptere ideas), but in particular my brain fixated on the complete and utter lack of sea serpents. some could sort of fit the bill, but water affinity does not a sea serpent make. and i think the baikala dragon is REALLY neat, and i'd love to see more of them. i also noticed there was no pygmy sea serpent, and my mind began to wander...



i know i'm a big ol' gimmicks guy, but while drawing this weird lil eel i started entertaining the idea of Bioluminesence. and i don't just mean lore-wise, i mean actually on the sprite. i got really excited and rushed to try and make a pass at it as soon as i could. apologies to the colorblind out there, but if you could, please take a look...



this sprite isn't set in stone, in fact it's a fan dragon so whatever. but it was a fun thought experiment, so here's some lore i've gots:

 

Glow-worm Eel

• Light (primary element); Water (secondary element)
• Uncommon/rare, only found in Coast
• its base color is black but honestly any color works

The "Glow-worm Eel" is only one of these things: glowing. Sometimes confused for the hatchlings of Deep Sea Dragons, this elusive breed also finds its home in the depths of the sea and uses bioluminesence to communicate with its own kind. However, the similarities stop there. Glow-worm Eels are an extremely sociable breed, and establish strong pack bonds with one another, or even other dragons! It isn't uncommon for colonies of this dragon to find each other and end up amalgamating into a bigger colony. Glow-worm Eels are polygamous but mate for life. Unfortunately, their long gestation periods plus less-than-average defenses means that colonies tend to max out at about 15 individuals.

• species has a bit of its own language, using its shifting lights and colors in a very complicated morse-like code
• colonies have a preferred lil den area in the water, they like to decorate it with shinies every glow-worm has a different thing it likes to collect, but the species as a whole seems to really like round things
• they like to huddle together. when they are sleeping together it looks like a tangle of glowing seaweed
• subsists off of mana and plankton, their glowing could be part of their body processing the magic? hm hm
• they don't glow ALL the time. when they aren't they just look like slippery black noodles. sometimes they use this to try and sneak into family units of deep sea dragons
• if you couldn't tell already they love making friends/family members. frens is wen u hav a bud
• they aren't poisonous, so they use their displays to make predators think they are. when predators find out that they aren't... it's very bad. because they are delicious
• they probably taste like salmon or something. they're salmon spaghetti
• they're called glow-worm eels because they glow, are wormy, and look like eels. i am so smart (please help me name things)
• glow-worms can get REAAAAAL long. it's the only non-pygmy thing about them: their heads are smaller than your palm but their body can just Keep Going. idk how far, maybe a few meters? as long as i am legally permitted to stretch them

Edited June 27, 2020 by mm-d

[Shokomon]

- Take the golden pygmy; Make it Silver. Enter it as a dragon request, and then we will have two rare pygmy dragon requests that echo their normal dragon counterparts.

 

Anyway, these are lovely!

 

Though, for the stuff you actually submitted to the requests. Once those topics are completed, you should remove the art from your topic. It will make it easier for them to get released.

Otherwise, very interesting!

[mm-d]

@Shokomon hmmm.... you've got a good point with the pygmy. i might go ahead and do that LMAO

 

thank you for your kind words!! and thank you also for your advice, i'm still not all Snart about all the ins & outs ^^; in the future when the topics are completed, i'll delete the sprites!

[mm-d]

hi i can't stop thinking about the ugly duckling dragon so i decided to sketch some stuff on it. though i did this much earlier in the day and got SUPER distracted so it's kinda incomplete atm!

 

Egg: You nearly overlooked this ordinary-looking egg.

Hatchling: Awww, it's... uh. When did you get a bird?

Mature Hatchling: Awww, it's not a bird after all! That, or a stray hatchling found and ate the chick from earlier. But look! It's wingspan is enormous--it must be close to maturing.

Adult: Swanwyrms have a curious morphology--once believed to be rarer than they truly are, each stage of life presents radical changes in their appearance. Their male and females alone have been confused for two completely different species. this is the part where i got distracted

• pretty cruel breed, they drop their disproportionately small eggs into birds' nests to raise their hatchlings. once the swanwyrm hatchling gets big enough, it eats its nestmates. very fun! and that's only the beginning stage of life
• extremely territorial, great memory. holds lifelong grudges
• part of the reason that the hatchlings weren't connected to the adults for so long is because the adults are territorial to the point of attacking the hatchlings of its own breed. not its own kin, but definitely stranger swanwyrms of the same gender.
• the females are extremely aggressive, while the males are less so. the females are also MUCH bigger than the males. wahoo!
• these guys are gonna have some crazy color schemes i just need to, finish refining the sketch
• also had the stupid idea of a rare alt where the hatchling just grows up to look like a weird mutant bird. you have become one with the bird

Edited June 29, 2020 by mm-d
rich text editor was being weird so i had to post before i could add any more stuff

[mm-d]

hi here's a dragon sprite or two

this one isn't done yet but it's an ice-elemental eastern dragon that i. forgot to give legs. it'll get legs eventually i promise

 

OH HEY i just started on this other one while i twiddle my thumbs, check this out!:

Spoiler

ok so here's a bit of a process:

i knew i wanted a dragon with a silly face, but aside from that, i wasn't quite sure where to start. i started with the neck, and the silhouette just kinda expanded from there.

i had to do some fussing to make sure that everything was basically lined up, but even after posting this image i know that there will be a LOT more adjustments. for starters, the neck on the right looks a little odd, and the attachment of the right wing doesn't look even when compared to the left. the tail also doesn't have a very pleasing curve. let's fix that!

it'd also do us some good to have an idea of the anatomy, right? let's make a "second" silhouette that highlights the main body. (also don't be afraid to flip your canvas regularly)

i had to change some stuff around to fit with the body, but... eugh. that looks as stiff as a board, doesn't it? and i don't like all the changes i made to the necks. let's curve that body! though, adjusting the main body means that we'll have to adjust the wings too.

what a nice, polite boy!! a friendly friendly boy!! the left neck is a little chunky so i fixed it, but aside from that i was ready to line. it's at this part of the process that i start trying to truly solidify details, though it also continues into the coloring stage.

don't worry about this part

i have elected to give this poor dragon arms. not legs though. i don't feel like it. time to line these wings... the perspective/anatomy is a bit off on the far wing, so i'm gonna adjust it again.

i'd like to note that i don't really worry about fixing weird lines until i actually do the lineart, and some stuff stays until i color it.

alright when i color things i black out until the very end so i guess i'll see you next time on total! drama! galsreim!

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by mm-d

[mm-d]

this guy turned out so well that i'm actually kinda mad about it. (because it was supposed to be an inside joke between me and a friend...) so i've given them a real face

imagine not being a joke sprite anymore..... OH i'm gonna make a color alt :]

heheheehehehehehehehehe...... gold & rose gold babeyyyyyyy

 

edit: also did this while procrastinating on sleeping, still a wip but :] funy drago time

Edited July 18, 2020 by mm-d

[Shokomon]

On 6/29/2020 at 6:54 AM, mm-d said:

hi i can't stop thinking about the ugly duckling dragon so i decided to sketch some stuff on it. though i did this much earlier in the day and got SUPER distracted so it's kinda incomplete atm!

 

Egg: You nearly overlooked this ordinary-looking egg.

Hatchling: Awww, it's... uh. When did you get a bird?

Mature Hatchling: Awww, it's not a bird after all! That, or a stray hatchling found and ate the chick from earlier. But look! It's wingspan is enormous--it must be close to maturing.

Adult: Swanwyrms have a curious morphology--once believed to be rarer than they truly are, each stage of life presents radical changes in their appearance. Their male and females alone have been confused for two completely different species. this is the part where i got distracted

• pretty cruel breed, they drop their disproportionately small eggs into birds' nests to raise their hatchlings. once the swanwyrm hatchling gets big enough, it eats its nestmates. very fun! and that's only the beginning stage of life
• extremely territorial, great memory. holds lifelong grudges
• part of the reason that the hatchlings weren't connected to the adults for so long is because the adults are territorial to the point of attacking the hatchlings of its own breed. not its own kin, but definitely stranger swanwyrms of the same gender.
• the females are extremely aggressive, while the males are less so. the females are also MUCH bigger than the males. wahoo!
• these guys are gonna have some crazy color schemes i just need to, finish refining the sketch
• also had the stupid idea of a rare alt where the hatchling just grows up to look like a weird mutant bird. you have become one with the bird

I like these guys! I just think they are too bird for DC. Which is a shame, because they look nice.

 

On 7/18/2020 at 8:46 AM, mm-d said:

this guy turned out so well that i'm actually kinda mad about it. (because it was supposed to be an inside joke between me and a friend...) so i've given them a real face

imagine not being a joke sprite anymore..... OH i'm gonna make a color alt :]

heheheehehehehehehehehe...... gold & rose gold babeyyyyyyy

 

edit: also did this while procrastinating on sleeping, still a wip but :] funy drago time

And suddenly the joke breed is no longer a joke breed lol.

 

They do look nice though!

 

And that last one looks cool and creepy.