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aboveClouds — Reluctant Rescue
Published: 2013-06-08 01:35:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 3433; Favourites: 177; Downloads: 0
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Description
Backstory:Saise has always been an expert swimmer. He can dart around the water with ease, and can even glide above it using his large pectoral fins. Unfortunately for him, his expertise in swimming didn't save him from the sudden, violent storm which caught him unaware one dreadful night. The storm quickly swept his body into the shallows and crashed him into the hard, rocky shores, leaving him badly injured and unable to swim or even move due to the pain.
Luckily for him, Golden Druid -- a feral druid with healing powers -- managed to find him the next morning. However, Saise instantly distrusted Golden Druid's humanoid form, finding it too similar to the humans which nearly wiped out his kind years ago. He refused her so-called "healing powers," and insisted that it would be better for him to bleed out than to receive help from a "human."
Golden Druid tried her best to win the dragon's trust, but to no avail. He wouldn't listen to reason, and her ability to shapeshift only made him distrust her further. Finally, Golden Druid decided enough was enough, and began to heal his fins whether he liked it or not. She knew that this was a risky move -- a dragon his size could easily kill her -- but it was a risk she had to take. She wasn't going to let this dragon's stubbornness lead to his untimely death.
Finally finished! I'm so stoked that I get to post this picture. It's been a long time in the making.
Anyway, this is a collaboration with the awesome =GoldenDruid . It started out as a contest prize, but =GoldenDruid suggested we turn it into a collab instead. I love collabs, so I was only too happy to go with her idea. She did the sketch, and I did most of the colors.
I gotta say, this is one of my favorite pieces to date. Not only does it use my favorite colors (purple + yellow = YESSS) it also takes place at my favorite time of the day (sunrise). Oh, and there's a dragon in it -- MY dragon. What's not to love?
Hope you like it!
ART INFO
Art © 2013 by and
Saise (the dragon) belongs to
Golden Druid (the non-dragon) belongs to
Special thanks to =InkyDemon for helping me out with the base lighting and ~ALRadeck for helping me out with the value balance. Midtones are my frieeeeend. :U
Critiques are fine with me.
Tools used: PSE.
Time Taken: Forever.
You are not allowed to use this artwork without ~aboveClouds ' and =GoldenDruid 's consent!
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Comments: 21
I really enjoy the dragon's concept. Saise reminds of coral reefs a bit (I guess it's the colours), and I actually can imagine him disguising underwater pretty much alike to Draco from 'Dragon Heart'.
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Thanks you!
Yep, Saise lives in the coral reefs. I based his markings off of several different coral reef fish. His colors are just colors that I happen to like. XD
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I just noticed something interesting. Our DA icons are purple and yellow and match the painting
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Haha, nice! We must really love those colors. XD
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Oohhh you guys did an amazing job on this. I Love the details on the dragon, and that golden light, and the colours which are simply amazing.
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I still think your works have a hand painted feel to them (and that's not a bad thing at all).
You can tell a lot of time and hard work was put into this one. The sunrise is gorgeous, the details on the dragon, the druid, the rocks and sea are great! The only thing I could point out is that the sea and rocks in the background are too detailed. I would remove the rocks in the center of the image (those in the sea). And smooth out the part of the sea that is furthest away. It would help make the main focus pop more
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Aww, thanks!
Yeah, I like to keep my digital artwork a bit loose so it still has some of the liveliness of traditional art. I don't like it when people blend and smooth out their digital art to the point that everything is super, ultra smooth. That style works for some materials (brand spankin' new metal) but it doesn't look right for a lot of other things (skin, fur, dirt, etc.). Plus, I don't have the patience to blend every. little. thing.
Thanks for pointing out the rocks! I got rid of some of the rocks in the sea and I got rid of some of the closer rocks as well. The picture looks a lot less busy now.
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You're welcome 
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Very good work, great job. And the backstory is very nice too.
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Thanks! I'm not much of a writer, so I was a bit worried about the backstory. Good to hear that it came out well, though!
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I think it was well-written
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Really awesome piece Pash! There's a lot of action going on with the waves in the bg that really ties everything together in this. Great color combination as well. ^_^
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Thank you, Arfy! ^^ I wasn't sure if the waves were going to work out when I was painting them. They came out a lot better than I was expecting, that's for sure.
Purple + yellow = automatic awesome.
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