Arctic Dragon (Creature Design)
After taking the short creature design course “Chimaera” by Jonah Lobe I decided to get myself into a practise exercise to better understand what had been taught. I chose to redesign my imaginary friend Fireice the Arctic Dragon that I had first drawn when I was around 8 or 9. It involved a lot of experimenting because I was using some of the techniques (like starting with a black and white value drawing and later moving into colours) for the first time. It took about 5 days (on and off) to complete and enjoyed the process a lot! This is the result
Main image in a white background. I worked hard to make him look white even though there’s barely any pure white in his body. I also love how the iridescence shows up in the final piece.
First silhouette work, brainstorming ideas regarding shape, feel, overall body posture to indicate how strong/dangerous/quick/playful... this creature may be
Mixed my favourite ideas from the figure phase into a final silhouette that conveyed a quick and agile demeanour for this particular dragon.
Rendered completely in values at first before adding colour, just to make sure everything made sense regarding volumes, textures, etc
Detail shot of the head. I was inspired by monitor lizards skulls and the tongue of a blue tong skink. I wanted him to look intelligent and playful (he is my childhood imaginary dragon friend after all) yet dangerous if needed.
A detail shot of the left arm’s talons. Inspired by birds and other dinosaurs.
I’m happy with the shine on the wings, they must look beautiful while in flight!
Here’s the final result, with those pearlescent colours added! Against a black background the result is even more dramatic