Creating A Digital Dragon

My First Digital Dragon

Dragons are so mystifying, magical, and freaking awesome, but a bitch to draw!

I am a digital artist meaning I create most of my art in the digital world via cameras, photoshop, imovie, lightroom and other computer software. I can’t draw or paint for crap! Don’t get me wrong I can doodle an amazing stick figure here and there but when it comes to drawing an actual character or something awesome forget about it! 

I’ve been wanting to create a few images that require a dragon. Obviously I can’t just go to the local zoo to take a picture of one so I have to create my own. I’ve asked people to draw them for me but that became like pulling teeth just to get it done. Many of my ideas got shoved to the back burner until I can come up with my own dragon. If any of you feel like drawing me a dragon please do share! 

After about a year of wanting to create these images I’ve finally decided to try and create my own from scratch. Using various images, animals, and techniques I’ve learned I wanted to challenge myself to see if it was even possible. 

I'm not the only one wishing for their own dragon. I mean don't we all want our very own dragon? A few friends of mine have recently approached me to design them a dragon or rather multiple dragons. One of my good friends in particular is creating his own video game and needs, you guessed it, dragons. We spoke many times about creating our own and what I could hopefully accomplish for him. A few other friends and family members mentioned that they would like a dragon tattoo. Ok so after hearing this for about a year or so I decided enough is enough I gotta quit being scared or waiting for others to help me and see what I can do. Challenge accepted and much welcomed!

Yesterday I sat down, took a deep breath, and started playing around with a few ideas on how I would accomplish this without a drawing to go off of. I knew I wanted to create a dragon outside of the typical body type. A unique character that would be my own. Using a lot of stock images of different animals I started toying with a body for my creature and moved on from there.

Can you name all the animals I used? Bet you can't name them all!
Looking at how my prototype dragon first began is comical! I think my 4 year old niece could draw a better dragon than this goofy looking guy! Hmm that might not be a bad idea...




Well that's how he began but after a full morning working on him this is how he turned out...

Amazing what shading and detail can do.  Yes he's still super goofy, out of portioned, and definitely not your average dragon but considering I started this from scratch, with nothing to go off of, and absolutely  no experience with mystical creatures I gotta say he's not too shabby. I definitely wouldn't want to see this guy hanging in a gallery, in my friends video game or God forbid tatted on peoples arms but it's a start. Like I said he's just a prototype. A look at what's to come. And boy will there be more! I'm kinda hooked now and am gonna try to create a real dragon this week to see what I can create. I'll keep you all posted! This should be fun!
Thanks for following along and I'll chat with you all next time!
-Amber

PS to see how this magical being came to life check out my speed edit below.