[pixualize]

Morning Perch submitted for your approval.
This is the first all digital dragon I've completed to this stage. Even the sketch was roughed out in Pshop to use a a guideline, and will post it should anyone like to see the method to the madness.

It took 6-8 hours total and most of that was the grass.

[kegie]

wow, that's very impressive!
That dragon looks almost alive =)
Only thing I noticed is that the wings look a bit rough and scetchy.

[wayfinder]

i like it. i think the head is really big though

anyway, on different note, this picture made me think about the anatomy of dragons, i basically thought about it like this: assuming there WAS such a thing as dragon, and it evolved on this planet naturally, it would probably be either insectoid (six or more legs and one or two pairs of wings) or reptile/mammal (two legs and one pair of wings). If there could be a reptile or mammal with six limbs, I don't know from where it would have evolved. Then there's the thing about the weight and how it is supported in mid-air. i think the wings of your dragon would simply snap, unless it is hollow. I would imagine a reptile or mammal dragon to be very thin, with very strong breast muscles, and more of a glider than a flyer. unless it had skin features like hair that evolved into something to shape the wings more aerodynamically, the structure of the wing bone would have to look a lot like that of a big bird, or the front of a modern plane wing. pterosaurs might be an example of how it could work, and they reached sufficient sizes to instill fear in a human being. if it was insectoid, well, i don't know much about large insects, but there's big butterflies with a tiny body and gigantic, almost weightless wings, and that might be a possibility for a dragon. i don't think that the bee/wasp flight model works too well for really big insects, hornets are only 4-5 cm big and they're already huge. hummingbirds shouldn't be able to fly at all, according to the laws of aeronautics. there's huge fossil insects, but they aren't longer than a meter or so, so the insectoid body system might not be suited for extremely large animals.
that would be the next question: how big would a dragon be? legends might greatly overexaggerate their size. i imagine that a 2m long flying predator could be perceived as being much bigger, and they get bigger with every story told, of course.
well, some idle thoughts on the matter, their relevance might be in the negatives, but it's fun to think about how those things could work, if they could work at all.

[Staff Sarge]

That grass looks great, wow! The sky has nice colours but it's a bit dull (but it's just me, don't worry, I have a slight cloud-fetish, heh).

Overall, this is a great pic. It could fit perfectly to a cover of some fantasy book.

[hydrid]

Ooooh, beautiful!

I think the face gives it a look of a dinosaur... perhaps a few dinosaurs were roaming around medieval Europe and they thought they were Dragons! Muahaha, there's my evolution theory for the day

[FFNeX]

I love it, I think it's prefect.

Dragons are magical creatures so no need to worry about anatomy

[daz199]

doooooooope

[pixualize]

Thanks for the great comments!

kegie - Yeah! Damn that scaley hide! I'll have to get the lotion out!

wayfinder - Ohhh! Those are some very good thoughts. My dragons are kinda like flying T-rexes and they're magical to boot. That maybe one reason they can fly at all, the levatate and use their wins as propellant.

Sarge - The clouds are a stock photo, I didn't want to screw with it, just wanted to paint the dragon. I'm desperately hoping some publisher will ever see my stuff to print it on a book cover. I've already got a couple of games under my brush now. Next stop Bantam/Doubleday!

hydrid - Very likely! Komodo dragons get pretty big. How 'bout seeing those guys flyin' around?

[NukleoN]

Nice! Love the lighting on the grass and the dragon is cool...ground is excellently rendered...I'd suggest rendering up those wings more, especially the one nearest the light..perhaps make it translucent where the skin is thin and stretched. As for the dragon's right wing (his right), that needs work...you probably should revisit the bending and resolve it so it sells better...the left wing (his left) is very cool tho...

Overall this is excellent!

[Dives]

Smooooooth... all i can say...

[Eric Pommer]

First off, this looks great, and I've seen worse dragons on book covers. There are a couple of things I'll crit though...I gather that the size of the dragon's head is perspective, but this doesn't come across immediately because the tail, which looks closer than the head, doesn't seem to get any larger. There is also something about the angle of the neck...the 'middle line' seems to be too straight while the rest of the neck curves gracefully. The left wing needs another finger-strut showing, I think.
Overall, nice look and feel.

[pixualize]

Nah the head's just big

Comments and suggestions have been very useful. You all can see stuff I don't notice after having stared at it from 3-5am.

============

I made the corrections and the new image is posted in it's original place at the top. There is a more distinct highlight from the sky color, the neck center line has been corrected, and the head has been re-sized. I also added another layer of clouds to the wings to make them a little more "membraney" so you can see through them a bit.

Sent it off to the BIGArt competition to see how it'd do. The deadline is tomorrow, check 'em out:
http://forums.big-i.com/contest/rules.htm

[ May 14, 2001: Message edited by: pixualize ]

[Jezebel]

Nice dragon pix, the head looks like a 3d render It loads REALLY slow though

[Frost]

That is very nice Pixualize. Good luck with the contest!

[Hlid Skjalff]

Ok, agreed with Wayfinder. The dragon is awesome. However, he looks sort of unstable,
I would suggest making the front legs more muscular, it looks strange, such a big body on four thin legs, then - the second (the middle) segment of the right wing (for us) should show some tension, 'cos it has this things (dammit, how do you call it in English...?) that pull the outer segment of the wing when the dragon wants to fold the wing, so I think there should be an almost straight bone with a very tense structure around it, also making the wings bones would add to the stability.... wait a minute, did you ask for crits? if not, me sorry, forget it !!! :-)))))) One of the better dragons that I've seen (the best ones are done by Michael Welan (spelling?) :-))))))))))

HOLD ON, just one last thing !!! I got it, I knew that somethimg was bothering me - thats what it is - the proportion of FEET to the HEAD is weird, feet are too small, thats why it seems unstable!!!(I think)