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Luthrai — Tani and Juven.
Published: 2006-04-29 09:38:18 +0000 UTC; Views: 1429; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 92
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Description
You are looking at months of work, I'm afraid. This is for my PLAN project for graduating college. Because of the size, this got scanned in nine pieces. Nine. Yes, I know there are horrid seam lines where things don't match. When I get the chance, I'll take a picture of my picture, and resubmit that in this one's place. At the moment, I really just wanted to assure myself that this was done. And what better way of doing that by posting?And can you guess what I never want to do again, ever?
Draw a flat, rocky background in charcoal.
And can you guess what I'm likely going to be doing in the near future?
Drawing a flat, rocky background in charcoal.
Why do I hate myself like this?
Anyhow, the dragons. I've nicknamed the mom as Tani. And the juvenile.....well....it gets called Juven, for short. Yes, I get to design dragons in order to get a degree in biology. Cool, yeah? So this is what my dragons look like. They're actually divers, figuring a wingspan of 6-8ish feet, and they're ectotherms (because ectotherms are cool), so they live in the tropics.
18"x24" Vine and Compressed charcoal
For the duration I was working on this, it was clipped to my drawing board, no coversheet, and left in various spots in my disaster of a room. And nothing bad happened to it. I am frankly amazed. I mean, I carried this thing about, I nearly fell on it, I made food right over it - so many things could have ruined it and none did. ....yeah, I like to tempt Fate.
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EDIT: So, the digital camera thing didn't work nearly as well as I wanted it to. So, I broke out the scanner again, and rescanned the entire image, piece by piece. I then spent several hours piecing them together. The result: It's much prettier than before. I'm tempted to say, "I dare you to try to find the seam lines - I can hardly see them." But, I won't. Because someone will find them. And look! I added a border. Or rather, I replaced the border that it orignally had to a border that was actually straight. I feel cool.
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Comments: 30
The procedur really paid off. Great work! And I bow my head in respect for the work behind it.
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They are incredibly awsome. That is one picture worty of a fave.
I am going to be horribly picky and say that they aren't dragons, they're Wyverns. Dragons have four legs and two wings, not two legs, two wings.
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You are free to be horribly picky. I honestly don't mind in the least. ^.-.^
That is one way of looking at it, true.
Now if I get horribly technical and look at it from a different angle; a Dragon doesn't have to be defined as having 4 legs and 2 wings. Western dragons tend to go that route, of course. But then, all the other dragony-types of critters such as wyverns, lindworms, amphisbaenas, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera ('cause there's a lot)- They can all be filed under the general category of "Dragon."
I did want to do a dragon with 4 legs and two wings, but I couldn't come up with a feasible or workable body design that would allow for it. Alas.
Thankee for the fave.
^.-.^
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Ok, I take your point.
And You're welcome.
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wow, this is amazing! the shading and other detail is wonderful!!
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sweet me likes a lot. oh Luth'rai Dan says hi and he told me to look up your pics cuz their cool.
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absolutely gorgeous. the shading is perfect. they make me think a lot of the prehistoric pteranadons
wonderfull wonderfull job
i can't even tell where the scanning lines are in this.
but yes, enough groveling. in short, you did fantastic
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Thanks! I've actually been really iffy on the shading on Tani's chest because of the muscle structure... I still don't know if I got it right or not... but I think I'll take a break from being such a perfectionist and just be happy with it.
I've ended up researching a lot about pterosaurs, and for awhile, these guys looked a lot like them. But I didn't like that, so I changed 'em around a bit. There are, unfortunately, a rather limited selection of body forms for vertebrates that are well-adapted to flight (or at least the kind that I'm using for these guys), so similarities are inevitable. *shrug*
Again, thank you. ^.-.^
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it's awesome that you took the flight factor into consideration. a lot of dragons that i do see are so impracticle for flight....and somethimes for even walking. but hey, not everyone's gotton everything down yet.
and you're most welcome
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Yeah, I've seen some really impractical ones, too. I usually let it slide since I figure the artists aren't designing them for their thesis.
Technically speaking (or perhaps anatomically would be more correct), the dragons I draw for fun (so not those two up there) wouldn't work at all, despite all the effort I put into making them look at least somewhat feasible. Oh well. Like you say, not everyone's gotten everything down, yet.
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Hmm, I do believe that I shall take that as a compliment. Thanks! Detail...makes me go cross-eyed sometimes. And pull my hair out - literally.
.....you're okay, right? *poke poke* Urp's a funny noise to be making, y'know...
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*blinks awake*
Urp... It was...urp... a bit overwhelming.
In a good way.
Gimmie a minute... I needs to wake up....
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Yay! We finally get to see some of the results of all your research!
I must say, they look fabulous. I like the design for the dragons, and you drew them beautifully. I hope you will let us see how you arrived at this design, and explain the physiology in great detail.
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One thing I've learned here at my college: If you ask a senior what they're studying for their Plan, they will be more than happy to talk your ear off regarding the subject. I am no exception to the rule.
I plan on updating my thread in the Draconomicon forum in the very near future. Heck, once I'm altogether finished, I rather plan on posting my paper in some form or other somewhere. Along with all the drawings I'll have for it. Those at least will be popping up over the summer as I get them done. I've already started another one. ^-^
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Wow, that's in charcoal? It's amazing. 
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Thankee kindly. I realize (and see) now that the ocean's horizon line back there is crooked. Oops. It shouldn't be that crooked. I think I must have over-rotated one of the pieces while putting it together. .....does that even look like water back there?
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Yeah, I could tell that it was water.
By the way, you did a really good job of piecing this together. I only found one seam line, and that's only because of a major color difference along the border.
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Yay! It looks like water! I dance.
Only one seam line, eh? Hm, must be because I've been staring at this for who-knows-how-many hours that the rest of the seams look so glaringly obvious to me. Well, that, and the fact that I was the one who pieced it together, and therefore know exactly where to look for them all...
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Yeah, knowing where to look certain helps.
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ahh, so it arrives! I like! Not quite a dragon in the traditional sense, but it looks like what the result of our conversations have been. Bravo!
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Oh, just wait til you hear how I've been connecting it up with various bits of draconic mythology! ^.-.^ Granted, there's so much of that that it's really not all that hard to pick and choose random bits to attach to nigh-anything for a draconic feel.
Glad you like!
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amazing job. The full view is beautiful, I love the amount of detail you put into it. What makes this more impressive (for me at least) is the fact that you managed to add so much detail with vine charcoal and have no smudges... great work
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I'm honestly amazed that no smudging occurred. Well, my shirt did actually smudge up the rocks along the bottom edge a few times, but I actually liked the effect and cleaned it up some.
....and after just checking your gallery very quickly....wow....I feel so much cooler because you're commenting. Thanks!
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Simply amazing. I love all the detail, and the charcoal work is amazing! It might have been a pain, but it definately paid off.
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Thank you! I am so glad it paid off - I was about ready to shoot myself over the background a few times. Whereas the dragons...not so much. I really enjoyed working on them.
I likes me my charcoal. ^_^
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The background is wonderful! But I definately know how you feel - there's a special magic with drawing the focal figures that just doesn't exist for a background. Hehehe. I die of boredom coloring rocks, yet I happily color individual scales on a dragon....
And you are a master of charcoal. I haven't worked in charcoal recently, but I do remember how hard it was.
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