[Lovely Radiance]

In the last days of darkness and dread,
A light will come to resurrect the dead.
The ones who've fallen will rise again,
Destroy the darkness in their heads.
The Light will light the sky,
Pure raindrops of hope to one day die...

First realistic dragon I ever drew. I hope you all see the hard work I put into this.
This is for the Dragon Army. Please do not steal.

Please: FULL VIEW IT! YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SEE THE DETAILS WHEN IT'S SMALL.

Tools used:
Mouse...
LAYERS!!! Finally!! D:
Airbrush, pensil, ect.

Song I listened to while drawing: Two Steps from Hell - Black Blade - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z28lwyQj ... re=related

[felwinter]

Wow!!!

[Nokiri]

I NEED SOME OF YOUR ART. ;u;

[Shirafune]

Quite interesting. I like the style of art.

Are you taking any constructive criticism?

[Lovely Radiance]

@alphawolfcub@ - Thank you! ^^

@Red Pyro@ - Wow, thanks! I do have an artshop if you would like for me to PM you the link?

@Shirafume@ - Thanks, though it's a little too dark for my liking though... Yes, I can take constructive criticism, it would actually be deeply appreciated..

[Shirafune]

Cool cool. So, first thing I noticed was the head looked way too big for the length of the body. The head should be a bit smaller, 3/4 the size maybe? Of course, since dragons are mythical, there's really no set proportions... but going by what we're used to seeing frequently in the current animal life, few animals would have a head that size, in comparison to the body. Also, the shape of the muzzle looks a bit off like you're using two different perspectives to look at the same thing. The upper lip looks like it's just a straight line, so the perspective is skewed with the number of teeth in front. The left canine tooth should be partly covered by the left middle tooth and slightly smaller than the right canine tooth to make it look like the right side of the dragon is closer to the screen than the left.

Second, yes, it is a bit dark. It looked like you actually had detailed scales so the awesomeness effect is dulled by the poor lighting. The glowing bone plates don't give off enough light. The breath/beam of light in the mouth is giving off appears to be really bright, so I'd actually expect there to be enough light to highlight the forearms a bit more. Since with the angle of the jaw, it looks like the head is angled to one side but the shadows don't match. The way you drew your shadows, they don't really give much shape to the dragon's body or head. There's no defined line for muscles or the illusion of being 3-D. In some parts, it looks like you're using a different light source than what you actually have (and what we can see). Since it's pretty dark, it will probably be very hard to see the hind legs and the scales, so much so that you might not even be able to see scales at some points. Remember, in darkness, colors and shapes start to blend in with each other, gradually becoming darker and black.

I'm also not quite sure what shape the wings are supposed to be taking. To me, it looks like the wings are just being opened straight up. If that's the case, the shadows and lights are in the wrong place. There shouldn't be spots of darkened areas. It would be a gradient of going from lighter to darker as you travel away from the light source. I'm not too sure if you were trying to make it look like it was curved or not. To make it curvy, it would be better to draw it as curvy instead of straight up (taking into consideration the wing joints) in order to help the eye and brain think that it's curvy.

Attempting 3D on a 2D media is hard. Mostly, it's really just the illusion of a 2D piece being 3D, tricking the brain to think that it's 3D. Which is why I don't color my drawings and I don't have a lot of time to spend on perfecting 3D techniques. That's why I draw manga/comic-style.

I hope this makes sense and helps a bit. I realize that this is your first so I hope I'm not being too critical...I've never actually criticized someone else's work online and someone who I don't know...

[BigBrownEyes]

Can I have the link too!?

[Lovely Radiance]

Cool cool. So, first thing I noticed was the head looked way too big for the length of the body. The head should be a bit smaller, 3/4 the size maybe? Of course, since dragons are mythical, there's really no set proportions... but going by what we're used to seeing frequently in the current animal life, few animals would have a head that size, in comparison to the body. Also, the shape of the muzzle looks a bit off like you're using two different perspectives to look at the same thing. The upper lip looks like it's just a straight line, so the perspective is skewed with the number of teeth in front. The left canine tooth should be partly covered by the left middle tooth and slightly smaller than the right canine tooth to make it look like the right side of the dragon is closer to the screen than the left.

Second, yes, it is a bit dark. It looked like you actually had detailed scales so the awesomeness effect is dulled by the poor lighting. The glowing bone plates don't give off enough light. The breath/beam of light in the mouth is giving off appears to be really bright, so I'd actually expect there to be enough light to highlight the forearms a bit more. Since with the angle of the jaw, it looks like the head is angled to one side but the shadows don't match. The way you drew your shadows, they don't really give much shape to the dragon's body or head. There's no defined line for muscles or the illusion of being 3-D. In some parts, it looks like you're using a different light source than what you actually have (and what we can see). Since it's pretty dark, it will probably be very hard to see the hind legs and the scales, so much so that you might not even be able to see scales at some points. Remember, in darkness, colors and shapes start to blend in with each other, gradually becoming darker and black.

I'm also not quite sure what shape the wings are supposed to be taking. To me, it looks like the wings are just being opened straight up. If that's the case, the shadows and lights are in the wrong place. There shouldn't be spots of darkened areas. It would be a gradient of going from lighter to darker as you travel away from the light source. I'm not too sure if you were trying to make it look like it was curved or not. To make it curvy, it would be better to draw it as curvy instead of straight up (taking into consideration the wing joints) in order to help the eye and brain think that it's curvy.

Attempting 3D on a 2D media is hard. Mostly, it's really just the illusion of a 2D piece being 3D, tricking the brain to think that it's 3D. Which is why I don't color my drawings and I don't have a lot of time to spend on perfecting 3D techniques. That's why I draw manga/comic-style.

I hope this makes sense and helps a bit. I realize that this is your first so I hope I'm not being too critical...I've never actually criticized someone else's work online and someone who I don't know...

Well that's a little... degrating. But I do thank you for your tips. Usually I draw anime-ish so this was very different for me. And there's only so much you can do with a mouse. The head looks fine from my persective... The lip is actually curved, it's just kinda hard to see. That part was actually very difficult. I'll get back in and edit him so he has more of the glowing effect on him. And honestly, I don't really know how to do muscles with a mouse... I'll also try to edit the lighting of the wings. Thank you for your help!

Mods, if you feel this doesn't belong in intermediate, please move it to beginners.