Blacklight Dragon Painting Commission

Here's my first sketch of the dragons based on initial discussions--two dragons, one breathing fire at the other flying overhead against a simple dark background.

Here's a similar view but in color. The view is tilted so we see a little landscape, plus the moon in sky. Red and green dragons as discussed.

Here's the latest. I sculpted one dragon from plastiscene clay (the kind we used as kids, stays flexible) wire and paper (wings). I also sculpted a separate dragon head which I used for the foreground creature. Then I posed the sculture different ways, photographed it and added colors, flame, etc. on the computer. This helps me a lot figuring out how the wings would look in 3D, try different lighting and fine tune the composition. All those wing folds are really tough to imagine otherwise. The moon would be in the sky here like in the second sketch.

The sculpture is an investment I hope to use in future dragon artwork. Note that the wing "shoulders" begin in front of the front legs, which makes more sense to me. Many dragon designs have the wings between t he back and front legs.

Some areas lack detail that I'll add to the final painting--feet and such.

The fun part of painting will be using the black light paints to best effect!

©2007 Martel Art