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samburley — Keeper of Cascade WIP
Published: 2010-12-12 21:02:54 +0000 UTC; Views: 18198; Favourites: 867; Downloads: 419
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© Sam Burley - Do not use without permissionCheck out my website [link] , blog [link] or facebook [link] for more!
Feel free to email me at sam@samburleystudio.com - Don't send notes here on DA because I tend to miss them.
If you're interested in prints, check my site Contact page for rates and send me an email, or browse BFA: [link]
Thanks for looking!
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Comments: 57
how did you turn the digital to traditional? D8
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I redrew it on a big slab o masonite.
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that would have been... a lot of work ;_; I don't think many people would have the patience to draw something twice
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Brilliant and very majestic, yet still not too austere.
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The sinuous contour of the dragon's body is great, and the simple shading very effective in defining the forms. The drawing has a lot of life to it.
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Only critique I can summon up pertains to anatomical plausibility, though I mainly mention it because of your recent journal. These things are minor though and I understand if you decide to ignore them for reasons of composition and stylized exaggeration, (loopy tails are fun afterall). For a flying creature, the tail is too long and ropey, realistically, this would be a burden by causing drag. A shorter, stiff, rudder-like tail would be more appropriate. Though if you want a wyvern with a long body, its believability would be helped by lengthening the width of the wing membrane. Instead of having it attach before the hindleg, bring it down further passed them to increase the wing surface and provide more support for the dragons back. Or bring the membrane down to attach on the hindlegs, like a pterosaur or bat, and provide support that way. A lot of pro artists draw dragons in horizontal poses like this that would be impossible to maintain for the creature because of how little span they give the wing membrane.
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All very good points and certainly well thought out. I'm quite aware of the issues with the tail
I did think about bringing the membrane into the hindleg originally, but that created some compositional issues again. I decided to go with something more like a flipper as a nod to cetacean physiology in the end, but you're right again that he probably couldn't maintain flight like this.
But thanks for the analysis, I do appreciate it and you clearly know stuff.
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Thanks so much, that means a lot to me coming from you. And I cant wait to see the final version of this, it's shaping up great so far.
Do you mind if I ask a question about your painting process? I never know how to start a painting, whether I go on with straight colour or start out in greyscale like this. Is greyscale your preferred way of starting a painting? And how do you colorize it later?
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This is quite striking already, even though it is only a WIP. I can't wait to see the finished product.
I would've wrote up a fancy critique, but I really don't have much to say.
The only thing I could suggest is changing the dragon's tail.
It's unnaturally long right now. I believe dragons would use their tails for balance and in this case the tail should be no longer then the dragon's body.
If you take a look at reptiles their tails are usually the same length as their bodies and if you changed that in this picture it would just make it that more realistic.
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You're absolutely right. It's funny, the tail definitely seems to be the subject of highest controversy with this - people either love it or hate it.
Honestly, I made a conscious decision NOT to make the tail anatomically correct for a couple reasons, mostly composition. It's hard to say whether it was a good decision or not yet, but hopefully it'll look good in the end
Thanks for the input!
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It's getting there... slowly... and ugly..ly.
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Surprise! This piece has been featured here, [link] , today!
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Criticism??? Well.... I think that the dragon(?) looks kinda like a crocodile or alligator... But it might be like this for a certain reason... I love it.
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Heh I take that as a compliment actually. I love crocs and generally use them as the base for any reptile I'm designing.
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thats kinda awesome! i just love combination of lines and tones. and you know, some feeling of WIP makes it even better ) like Da Vinci's sketches )
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Haha, I'd say there are worse things in life than emulating DaVinci.
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Oh no, i didnt mean emulating Oo
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Nice work! I can definitely see Lars's influence in the dragon design. You might want to try changing the clouds a bit - I understand why compositionally they're swirly in the middle and nowhere else, but it looks a little weird. Might also want to drop your horizon a little, so that it can hit a 1/3 mark rather than be close to the middle.
Love that tail!
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This is really really cool! I am a huge fan of your painting!!! and go to school with andrew at ccad. I am not nearly as good as andrew but love look and helping him come up with ideas. I really like how you combined your background with a character! I think it might be interesting like that other persons comment to play with widening the view. I also think it might be cool to have maybe a ship or land on the horizon really faint? and I dont know really what the big jagged rock like structure coming out of the hole is. I like it! and thought maybe it would be cool to play with making it like a tower built into the rock or like where the dragon lives like a nest and a whole bunch of wrecked ships crashed up against the rocks kind of like a Bermuda triangle and the dragon is the keeper?
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Glad you like it. And you're right about a bunch of things - that one big spike will be a rocky tower (I have yet to decide on a style of architecture so it's still rough). It could use a ship or something to add a sense of scale. I may do birds instead just to keep humans out of it, but at the same time, birds seem so cliche so maybe not. We'll see... I'm open to suggestions
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Haha, the key phrase there is 'so far.' There's always plenty of time to screw things up later XD
But yeah, me and long tails... we have a thing.
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Haha with that level of artistry? I kinda doubt that. XD
And yeah, that long tail looks cool. Gives more motion and some kind of sense of depth.
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I absolutely love this. The shaping of the dragon/drake is wonderful! As usual, the background is amazing too, but I love (words cannot explain how much i love) the dragon!!
The only thing I would say is maybe give him some hint of a hand/claws on the right wing (the viewer's right) because I wondered how he would land, or walk on the ground.
This is definitely a homerun tho!
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Thanks Andrew! This'll be my IlluXCon baby. Actually I started thinking about it during Donato and Lockwood's lectures
Hope you had a good time there and found it worthwhile, btw.
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Nice! I can also see some of Lars' lecture in there lol
Oh yeah! It was definitely worthwhile. I'm pretty sure my friends and I are going again next year.
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Looking good, sir! Question, are you tied to those dimensions? I kind of either want to see it slightly expanded to the right or on the top, to give a little breathing room?
But that is only a tiny little knitpick. I agree with another commenter, looks pretty damn rocking just as is.
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I'm trying to stick to standard dimensions (I was planning on 36x24 for this), but since it's still in PS that's still an easy fix. Thanks!
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