Who doesn't like dragons?
I, for one, love them. I even got together with a couple of pals to make a whole podcast season about them (which is now going to explore all the other mythical creatures around the world). And this little beauty came about when I hit an art block a while back. I was stuck with another painting and needed to break away from it. Being the workaholic that I am, I couldn't just not do anything so I thought I'd do a quick speedpaint. Dragons were among the first things I learned to draw as a kid, and I naturally gravitate toward drawing them.
THE OFFER
The whole speedpaint took about 6 hours (not in one sitting, because ADHD and crotchgoblins). And it all started with a sketch. This turned out to be a tad more detailed than I usually make my sketches and that's because I was just doodling, letting the pen go where and how it wanted to. Sometimes, giving the hand freedom to just express without restriction can yield something amazing. And it feels good.
Being a speedpaint, I didn't bother with worrying about lighting yet, or shading, or definition, or anything. I just blocked in colours using a soft airbrush so that the colours blended organically. Then I did some soft texturing using a custom brush of cracked ground. Afterwards, the wings looked way too empty, so I made a quick custom brush of tree bark texture (a la Rodney Matthews' style) and brushed it over the wing membranes.
What's a dragon without scales, right? But too many scales make for a very noisy painting so after I painted in some scales (and copy+pasted them all over, because speed), I grabbed a leaf brush with a scatter setting adjusted and erased most of the scales, focusing on the remaining scales on the head and neck, shoulders of the wings, the hide, and the tail.
Satisfied with the texturing, I moved on to adding the light in the chest cavity (which was originally going to show the dragon's heart but I figured light would be better symbolism against the stereotype of the "evil' dragon), then started out with the foreground.
Again using custom texture brushes, I added depth and more value to the grass and pillars, before blotting in the girl's colouring and basic highlights.
Tinkered a little with shadows and lights for the dramatic effect after grabbing a fresh cup of coffee, and set my sights to the background. What was the story, where was it, and did the dragon need warmth? Questions like these used in worldbuilding a story can have a major impact on an artpiece. And I decided the dragon was imprisoned away from the volcanic lands it would have thrived in, but not too far away that it would die from the cold. So the volcanic lands were the backdrop. Again, just random brushing using a custom texture brushes. The smoke was a combination of cloud and noise texture brushes, and played with the layer settings as well.
All that was left were some quick touch-ups. For one, the background was way too light and it drowned out the focus of the dragon and the scene in the midground.
And now for the progress GIF!
Made in Krita. Copyright 2021 Anike Kirsten