painting: dragon

[helenic]

A commission for mejoff and oxfordgirl - or rather, for the latter's mother, whose birthday present this is part of. Her father is organising a sort of Aladdin's cave of treasure, guarded by a dragon.

Given that the painted dragon is intended to be guarding actual physical treasure, the dimensions of the commission were quite specific - it needed to be landscape, at least two feet wide, with the hoard about 30cm at the base and about 20cm at its highest point. The dragon needed to be in the foreground, with no empty cave between the viewer and the dragon. These dimensions actually lead to a very tall hoard; far steeper than a pile of gold coins would naturally be without sliding down into a shallower heap. I tried to make it make sense by suggesting that the gold was pouring through a gap in the cave, with the dragon on top of the river of gold, but I'm not sure that I managed to make that clear. I also had a few misunderstandings about whether the dragon or the hoard should be in the foreground before getting things sorted out in my head - was the hoard receding and the dragon on top of it, in the middle distance, or were the hoard and dragon meant to be life-size, and the latter very small and cute, rather than big and fearsome and some distance away? (The latter, apparently, which made more sense.) There weren't any specifications regarding the dragon, other than that it had to be pretty.

This wasn't only my first commission to such precise geometric specifications, it was also my first dragon. To my dismay, I realised that I'd lost my copy of The Discovery of Dragons by Graeme Base, a beautiful big hardback book filled with gorgeous colour plates of dragons from all over the world, as discovered by a series of humorous fictional explorers. I loved that book, and without it I had no idea how to start working out how dragons were put together save looking at the covers of Anne McCaffrey books (which are not only the style of a particular artist, but also a particular futuristic species; I was aiming for a traditional Nordic dragon) or possibly photoshopping horses, seahorses, and lizards together to see what happened.

Thankfully, I didn't have to resort to that because the internet came to my rescue. This dragon owes its heritage not only to Smaug (of course), but to the beautiful designs of Allison Theus and Anne Stokes (of Wizards of the Coast fame), who inspired and informed many of my anatomical and stylistic decisions. I'm telling you, working out musculature for fictional creatures in tense postures when you aren't a particularly good imaginative artist (I'm not, I can't draw anything from imagination, I need light and shadow to copy) is not easy. The pectorals of this beastie alone took me almost a whole day. Who knew dragons had six pectoral muscles? I didn't, until I painted her with four and realised it didn't look right.

She's definitely a she, but she hasn't told me her name yet. I think her new keepers will be the ones to decide, but if you have any good ideas feel free to suggest them :)

"Untitled (dragon)", 2006
Oil on Canvas, 24" x 18"

(By the time she was collected this morning she was still slightly too wet to scan safely. dogstarphoto took some photos of her after our shoot last night, but managed to forget to include them on the CD he sent me. The above photo was taken by oxfordgirl's dad; I originally posted this entry with a grainy digicam photo.)

Comments

[borusa.livejournal.com]

Anne Stokes rp's with us at Bladelands, he says, apropos of nothing.

Were you able to use *any* consumate v's?

[borusa.livejournal.com]

PS. It is, of course, a lovely painting, but as that's online with expectation, it didn't seem notable.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thankyou :) "Online with expectation"?

[borusa.livejournal.com]

Well, you're a really good painter, therefore you produce really good paintings. Possibly this is a touch reductive. *grins*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Oh, did you mean in line with expectation? I thought you were making some reference to the fact that in putting it online I *must* think it's amazing, in which case I'd query it, because I put things online to get constructive criticism. And more work, natch ;)

[borusa.livejournal.com]

I am a business droid. There are no words that I cannot over-utilize on an ongoing basis in an attempt to leverage my synergies and effect a step change.
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Yes, I meant "in line". *embarrassed*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Hee :) *petpet*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Really? Fame! Pass on her thanks for me for her dragons, and if you have the chance to buy her a pint I will reimburse you :)

There are consummate Vs in the hoard, masquerading as gemstones.

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

oh, she's lovely - all languid yet taut. I particularly like the bone structure of the wings.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

The wings took me about a day to work out as well, but that was at the design/sketch stage. Designing wings that look like they make sense is unexpectedly difficult, but I expect it gets easier with practice.

I'm glad you like her :)

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

Did you base her wings on bat wings? Don't know if you've seen something like this (http://www.nurseminerva.co.uk/adapt/wings.htm) but it might be useful.

If I had the money I'd commission something from you *looks wistful*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Wow! That page is a very shiny thing - thankyou :) *bookmarks*

I didn't consciously base them on bat wings, but clearly they belong more to that family than any other. I thought the spines adding extra support were definitely necessary, though, given the mass of the things involved.

I'm good value, I think. (I charged £200 for this, and have been told by several people that it's worth more, but they weren't the client, so I suppose their estimation has limited relevance.) I'm also happy to be paid in alcohol and shoes :D

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. If you ever get the chance to hold a bat and gently flex its wings (yes, I am a bit of a bumpkin) that can be useful.
FWIW, I think the foreground wing makes more anatomical sense than the background one, but I am not a anatomist and am definitely not an expert!

One day, if I ever have £200 to spend on a painting and know what sort of thing I'd want, I'd commission something from you :D

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Ooh, shiny! Very nice.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Glad you like her! I was sorry to see this one go, actually.

[deborah_c]

She's very beautiful. My instant thought on seeing her was to remember the cover art of my rather elderly paperback of the Hobbit, as you allude :-)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

This one (http://home.swipnet.se/~w-70531/Tolkien/bilder/Art/tolk_smaug.jpg), you mean? If so, that drawing was certainly an initial conceptual reference, if not an artistic one :)

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Ah, stunning! :-)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Glad you like it! I've discovered that I like fantasy art :)

[adamw]

Wow, I like the dragon :D

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thankyou! Can't wait till I have a better picture to post :)

[kmazzy.livejournal.com]

oooooh she is so gorgeous. she has a very pretty face and gorgeous wings.

but the treasure pile is confusing. if i didn't know there were specified hoard dimensions i'd be very confused and think it looked a bit silly. it would be really interesting to see a picture of it in the final guarding location as then it might make more sense.

i wish i could commission you to do some pictures like

this (http://kobato.spur.ne.jp/gallery/ico_07.htm)
and
this (http://kobato.spur.ne.jp/gallery/ico_11.htm)

from this artist's site (http://kobato.spur.ne.jp/gallery_f.htm).

i really want an ICO painting. man i hope i did those links right.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't get the hoard looking the way I wanted. It's slightly annoying, but given time constraints and the specifications I don't feel too bad about it. It is nastily 2-dimensional though.

... Those pictures are gorgeous. Wow. <3 If Nick's ever looking for a birthday present for you ... :)

[denari.livejournal.com]

That is well cool!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[cavalorn.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Anne Stokes did the covers of two of my books. And one had sodding great dragons on it!