HOME | DD

Description
Sadly, the photographs just do not do this sculpture proper justice. Short daylight hours mean that I am never home when the sun is up any more, so I had to do what I could with the flash (which was nasty against the semi-gloss finish). So, you'll just have to take my word for it that this dragon looks infinitely more colorful and lovely in person than it does here.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I give you my part of a Secret Santa exchange on a forum that I frequent. This was my first time participating, and I must admit that I was about scared out of my wits when I found out that I was to work on a gift for the extremely talented ~cryslara ! I was moderately consoled by the fact that she seems extremely kind and friendly, and that I doubted that she'd bite me if what I produced wasn't perfect or even awesome, but still - I was scared.

I wanted my gift to be unique and my newest best above all else, so I worked very hard at those aspects. Since it was for a Christmas gift, I decided to try my hand at doing an ornament (though it is a bit large to hang on a tree ). I then thought that if I was going to go through the trouble of making a suspendable dragon creation that I should at least have it doing what winged dragons do best; flying.

Of course, the issue of balance and support were my first concerns; the former of which I never dealt with before and latter something that I never used on a full wingspan. Fantastic. So I stressed again. Fortunately, I remembered some of the skillfull dragon sculptors of dA and how some of them would use aluminum mesh for wing support, so I ran out and grabbed some!

The rest is history since the balance was purely accidental (I kid you not), and the detailing was due to a few stunning reference sheets that I was provided!

I will admit that the tail was initially supposed to be more level with the body, with the tail tip curving slightly up. However, I short-changed myself on the tail framing and the tail spades proved too heavy to maintain the pose without me tear half the body apart to re-armature. I will also admit that the wings are far too small according to my references, but that that was purposeful. Since I intended for this to actually be a tree-worthy ornament, fully proportioned wings would have been far too large. Now that I know the full weight of it, I may as well have gone the whole nine yards on the wings.

I know the the colors and color variations are a loss on these photos, and that some of the scale and limb-position detailing is, too, but I'm still very proud of this and I reeeeaaaally hope that ~cryslara likes it...even just a little bit.

Aluminum foil, armature wire, and mesh (1/16" holes).

In progress views available here:
[link]
[link]

Description
Sadly, the photographs just do not do this sculpture proper justice. Short daylight hours mean that I am never home when the sun is up any more, so I had to do what I could with the flash (which was nasty against the semi-gloss finish). So, you'll just have to take my word for it that this dragon looks infinitely more colorful and lovely in person than it does here.

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I give you my part of a Secret Santa exchange on a forum that I frequent. This was my first time participating, and I must admit that I was about scared out of my wits when I found out that I was to work on a gift for the extremely talented ~cryslara ! I was moderately consoled by the fact that she seems extremely kind and friendly, and that I doubted that she'd bite me if what I produced wasn't perfect or even awesome, but still - I was scared.

I wanted my gift to be unique and my newest best above all else, so I worked very hard at those aspects. Since it was for a Christmas gift, I decided to try my hand at doing an ornament (though it is a bit large to hang on a tree ). I then thought that if I was going to go through the trouble of making a suspendable dragon creation that I should at least have it doing what winged dragons do best; flying.

Of course, the issue of balance and support were my first concerns; the former of which I never dealt with before and latter something that I never used on a full wingspan. Fantastic. So I stressed again. Fortunately, I remembered some of the skillfull dragon sculptors of dA and how some of them would use aluminum mesh for wing support, so I ran out and grabbed some!

The rest is history since the balance was purely accidental (I kid you not), and the detailing was due to a few stunning reference sheets that I was provided!

I will admit that the tail was initially supposed to be more level with the body, with the tail tip curving slightly up. However, I short-changed myself on the tail framing and the tail spades proved too heavy to maintain the pose without me tear half the body apart to re-armature. I will also admit that the wings are far too small according to my references, but that that was purposeful. Since I intended for this to actually be a tree-worthy ornament, fully proportioned wings would have been far too large. Now that I know the full weight of it, I may as well have gone the whole nine yards on the wings.

I know the the colors and color variations are a loss on these photos, and that some of the scale and limb-position detailing is, too, but I'm still very proud of this and I reeeeaaaally hope that ~cryslara likes it...even just a little bit.

Aluminum foil, armature wire, and mesh (1/16" holes).

In progress views available here:
[link]
[link]