I would take a look at the.. evolution's you can find in dinosaurs..especially some of the early mammals..there were some odd natural innovations..but not only the animals..I would pay attention to every living thing in that enviornment's individual struggle..in the safari for example..some trees have to grow in a particular way that their shadow will keep their base shaded for around 80% of the time..or else it dies..it has to grow based on its environment..the wildebeest is an awesome example of an animal whose spine is built to be less flexible in order to keep its endurance higher than say a cheetah or lion who has a very flexible spine for burst of energy expenditures then it goes back to pooling it..your enviornment and the animals particular role play a very important factor..I think you are trying to go for the bigger picture here and its working pretty well..since its an animal of flight I would think about the structure of its bones a whole lot more and maybe how you could optimize its weight since animals that fly have hollow bones..and also its digestive system....speaking of check out the lammergeier for a really interesting digestive system..hope that helps!!
BONES..also I have been thinking about trying an experiment where I pick 3 DISTINCT animals and take different bones from each one..like puzzle pieces until I have a whole skeleton that I like..then trying to add muscles the same way then details..seems really time consuming..but just a thought.
Oh, I have always been a huge biology/paleo nerd. How animals function in their ecosystems and how different forces drive their evolution, etc. It's just that with dragons specifically I just haven't bothered going far outside the box and in terms of surface details and shapes, moreso than with other original creatures (though they are still lacking, as well). I am still building a repertoire of forms that occur in nature. There are just so many it's going to take years. A current project of mine is collecting images of as many species of animal, plant, and fungus as possible, building a massive archive for myself. There are many sites and blogs I look at and good Facebook pages to follow that regularly fill my feed with animals I hadn't heard of or "collected" yet.
The bones thing is kind of what I did for a class project once (Human and animal anatomy) where I designed a dragon's skeleton by looking at the shapes and functions of different animals' bones and putting them together. You should try it!
Gotcha, I cant say its the best but have you tried Alchemy? http://al.chemy.org/ I have also been trying to design with simpler shapes and more distinguishable characteristics...lately, I think about numbers, letters, street signs, symbols..things we see everyday. I did some skeleton drawings like that..I never completed the whole thing..drawing skeletons can be time consuming.
I heard about Alchemy a couple years ago by seeing results from somebody else who tried it. I grabbed it, kinda piddled around with it once, didn't really take off for me, though conceptually it has some neat functions.
Wow I love the design on that dragon! its very unique!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I needed to try branching out with them more like all the greats do. I usually tend to draw them so samey and plain.
DeleteI would take a look at the.. evolution's you can find in dinosaurs..especially some of the early mammals..there were some odd natural innovations..but not only the animals..I would pay attention to every living thing in that enviornment's individual struggle..in the safari for example..some trees have to grow in a particular way that their shadow will keep their base shaded for around 80% of the time..or else it dies..it has to grow based on its environment..the wildebeest is an awesome example of an animal whose spine is built to be less flexible in order to keep its endurance higher than say a cheetah or lion who has a very flexible spine for burst of energy expenditures then it goes back to pooling it..your enviornment and the animals particular role play a very important factor..I think you are trying to go for the bigger picture here and its working pretty well..since its an animal of flight I would think about the structure of its bones a whole lot more and maybe how you could optimize its weight since animals that fly have hollow bones..and also its digestive system....speaking of check out the lammergeier for a really interesting digestive system..hope that helps!!
DeleteBONES..also I have been thinking about trying an experiment where I pick 3 DISTINCT animals and take different bones from each one..like puzzle pieces until I have a whole skeleton that I like..then trying to add muscles the same way then details..seems really time consuming..but just a thought.
DeleteOh, I have always been a huge biology/paleo nerd. How animals function in their ecosystems and how different forces drive their evolution, etc. It's just that with dragons specifically I just haven't bothered going far outside the box and in terms of surface details and shapes, moreso than with other original creatures (though they are still lacking, as well). I am still building a repertoire of forms that occur in nature. There are just so many it's going to take years. A current project of mine is collecting images of as many species of animal, plant, and fungus as possible, building a massive archive for myself. There are many sites and blogs I look at and good Facebook pages to follow that regularly fill my feed with animals I hadn't heard of or "collected" yet.
DeleteThe bones thing is kind of what I did for a class project once (Human and animal anatomy) where I designed a dragon's skeleton by looking at the shapes and functions of different animals' bones and putting them together. You should try it!
Gotcha, I cant say its the best but have you tried Alchemy? http://al.chemy.org/ I have also been trying to design with simpler shapes and more distinguishable characteristics...lately, I think about numbers, letters, street signs, symbols..things we see everyday. I did some skeleton drawings like that..I never completed the whole thing..drawing skeletons can be time consuming.
ReplyDeleteI heard about Alchemy a couple years ago by seeing results from somebody else who tried it. I grabbed it, kinda piddled around with it once, didn't really take off for me, though conceptually it has some neat functions.
ReplyDeletehey angela! is that a photoshop brush you used for the canvas texture?! i love that.
ReplyDelete