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NesoKaiyoH β Spoopy Dragons
#animal #ballpoint #biro #creature #dragon #dragons #mythical #natural #nature #pen #reptile #sketch #sketchbook #traditional
Published: 2016-12-31 16:31:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 997; Favourites: 82; Downloads: 7
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Some dragons I drew yesterday! Really enjoyed these, haven't drawn dragons in a while, gonna do some more owoRelated content
Comments: 12
So cool!! I always love seeing your work!
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They look awesome! Your so great at giving your sketches such nice texture and detail and I'm really loving the shapes of each one, they are so unique! I have the opposite problem where I drew too much and they all looked identical, which wasn't too enjoyable. XDΒ
I hope you have a great new year!
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Haha thank you so much! Yeah I try to get as many different designs going with dragons as I can, ironically all my humanoid character faces all look incredibly similar lmaoΒ
Yeah you too!
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Your very welcome! I think no matter what the subject I do, they all just look the same in the end. XDΒ
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Just get some inspiration from different sources! When I'm stuck for designs I look at nature, seashells, trees, rock formations, all are valid designs you can bend and manipulate into your drawings owo
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I look to nature a lot, whats funny is when I draw from photos I look back and thats the problem that comes up, it must just be my bad perception? I don't know. I think its an issue of proportion, I can draw equally spaced proportions that look "correct" but they end up boring and look the same , but when I try to bend and manipulate it and to make them interesting they always look off. Like a rhythm game, if the beats are equally spaced I can do it but once the rhythm gets complex I always crumble.
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It's not your perception, just that you need more practice! Proportions that look "correct" are boring because they are just that, my dragon designs usually come out quite successful because I play with the proportions, I make the head bigger, chin bigger, smaller eyes etc. everything works in harmony together to create a fluid design! If you need some help, try drawing out different types of skull, taking a specific shape and then applying a imagined skull that would fit that shape but still serve the function of its owner. i.e. does the creature need eyes to see, does it need pointy teeth, misaligned jaw for chewing plants etcΒ
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I remember in a caricature class something that was similar to what you said about playing with proportions, I can play with the interior features all day long and have good success with that ( make the nose further than the mouth, or make the neg. space between the features uneven.) but what I have trouble with is the exterior face shape and making it fit with the interior. I've heard people say "remember every action has an opposite reaction." but even after tons of drawings, my mind can't "see" how to deal with the outer shapes.
I've been recently trying to do that as well after watching nature documentaries, although very difficult, its made the challenge more interesting. I saw people who designed the monster hunter dragons do that as well, but they intimidated me more than anything. XD Β one thing that I think of too I ask when a design is boring "whats one thing that makes this design unique?" and I try to accentuate that when all else fails.Β
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A design that is unique is only unique because it's not often seen, something that doesn't fit a typical person's stereotype. What I do in that case is take that stereotype and change it until it doesn't resemble what the thing is, but you know what it is just by looking at it. So for example let's take a dragon, when someone says "dragon" they automatically most of the time think of something like this (unless you're me lel):
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Afire breathing, scaly, larger than life lizard with huge bat wings. So I'd take each of those features, and change them. Change the facial shape so that it still fits within the realm of a lizard's skull i.e. having small, pointy and often many teeth, large eye sockets for tiny eyes and an elongated appearance (depending on the environmental adaptations of the species), of course thinking of the environmental limitations and how that would have affected the evolution of this specific creature. Then I'd change the body shape, perhaps instead of four legs it could have 2, or none. Maybe it has four wings? When you start changing these attributes that's when you start getting these more unique designs. After all that, you get something that might resemble this:
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Or this:
You may not think you're doing it right but so long as you take these steps into consideration then it's a good way to go. It takes time to learn design language and there's a lot to learn that I can't really teach. From what I see in your gallery many of your designs revolve around the same attributes and it's mostly a case of breaking out of your comfort zone to really learn what it is that makes a great design. Try sketching out many types of existing reptilian and avian creatures, perhaps throw some mammals into the mix, blend anatomy in a way that would realistically work, use a bird's body but with a reptilian upper half. Your visual library is lacking and I'm pretty sure that's where your problem lies ^w^
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Looking at their deigns and seeing them before, I still have no idea how they do that.Even with knowing animal anatomy the imagination is something I don't have. I've honestly just accepted that I don't have that creativity. I'm doing what your saying now, but man to do stuff like that, I just have to tip my hat to them, they are gods among men. Thank you for writing all this and giving refs.Β
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Like I said, it takes a long time to learn design language and anyone can do it with hard work and perseverance. Believe me, if you keep trying with those points in mind you will get unique designs. Just have some patience, don't admit defeat just because you're not as good. They've been doing it in excess of 10+ years, I've been designing dragons since I was a child! My designs only became unique in the past few years, after having drawn hundreds previously. Allow yourself to be influenced by others too, the two artists I gave reference of, are two of my favourite dragon and creature artists on here, and I take inspiration from their designs a lot, bending my own theme and likeness around it.
I've never always been how I am, when I was a younger artist, I did what anyone else did, I recycled the same boring designs over and over again, for many years and it was only through my own exploration and development that broke that mold, just give it a few good years of practice eh? owo
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