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TwilightSaint — Dragon, Listen Closely
Published: 2011-08-26 20:38:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 11158; Favourites: 472; Downloads: 0
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~~~'Dragon, listen closely...
'At dawn...we fight!'
I love this picture. I really, really, really do.
Sultan Saladin and his dragon Rahal the morning before a battle - like Fajr Prayer time, before sunrise... Saladin was crazy about Prayer.
I love Saladin. He's seriously my hero. <3 What an amazing person, he was.
So yeah, about the style. Instead of going in over soft gradients with hard cell-shading, I blurred the cells in places to soften them up, and then utilized low-opacity soft highlights with cell highlights. THOUGH, I think, honestly, the most striking part of the piece is the lighting effect - the backlighting. I usually work from standard lighting directions, usually the diagonal, but this piece is really inspiring me to work with some more unusual lighting angles.
So yep.
Enjoy!
Art/Dragon (c) me - Saladin (c) himself
~~~
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Comments: 154
This is beautiful. I love the dragon's expression, the way he looks at the Saladin. Lovely colours too. Super !!!
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The dragon colors are beautiful and the atmosphere is fantastic!
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This is some awesomesauce. And also how did you think about such crossover in the first place? xD It's an amazing idea. Dragons, dragons everywhere, and they fit in so nicely!
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Thanks! I love dragons, and I love the Crusades = love!
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And those two loves make such good combination! Keep up the good work ^^
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Thanks? Which one? Heh.
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why, the one superimposed over the characters so that you wouldn't be able to see them, of course.
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I never suggested otherwise.
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Usually people do, but obscuring the picture or not, I've found that I /need/ to keep the watermarks on my pictures.
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Photoshop Elements 7 and a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet.
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lets just hope the dragon doesnt sneeze
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Man, my hiatus from DA wasn't annoying because I couldn't upload stuff - it was annoying because I couldn't see the art of my favorite peoples like you, Twi. This picture is awesome and pretty and makes me feel happy inside. Also I inexplicably want to write now.
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Haha, I was wondering where you went! Thanks a lot! And I know the feeling - I finally started to take time to write down some of my new stuff.
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^_^ Aw, now I'm all happy that I was missed! I mostly just didn't draw for a long time and then I had so many messages I didn't want to check 'em...
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Ah, trust me, I have messages from /two years/ ago that I never got the chance to get to. 
Writing out some parts of my new story with Chris and Saed and them - and more intermittent parts of Saint/Yaz/Thom/the crew.
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XD haha. Probably not. I guess it depends on the person.
^___^; I felt a little bad that I didn't know much about your characters and I'm too busy *coughandlazycough* to like, look through past arts and whatnots but...that doesn't mean I can't start paying attention now!
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Eh, it's no prob. XD I try not to make /too/ much info about them public anyway - I mean, there are tons of pictures that I do that aren't on DA.
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So do you also write, or are these characters you mostly just enjoy to draw?
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Nice picture.
I read also read your explanation of Saladin and stumbled upon "History is made so much funner with dragons.". Do you know the Temeraire series (books)? It is pretty much that but not during the crusades but Napoleon with dragons. The books have also an interesting take on the traditional role of dragon riders (why just have only one man and a dragon when you can also put some riflemen on it?) and I consider it one of the best dragon, if not general fantasy books I have read.
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Thanks! ^^
I've heard of them, but haven't looked into them, (yet, my schedule is always crazy.) I definitely will, though!
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Saladin is amazing. From what little I know about him, he was a man who truly exemplified who a good Muslim is: honorable, kind, merciful, and rather peaceful. He only fought when he needed to, doing no more then what was needed, and tended to avoid warfare when possibe. Am I right?
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Yep, exactly. 
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