The Pink Dragon

Well, I had posted on my Facebook page a line art of a dragon I didn't want to color. Some amazing artists colored the line art I had posted and did such an amazing job, I was waiting to find time to paint it myself as well. Recorded the process. I hope you find it informative.

Finished painting can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1421041518156350&set=a.1397616850498817.1073741828.1397611783832657&type=1&stream_ref=10

Process: With you, I forget the world

My sister's friend told us about this art shop in Lajpat Nagar and together we all set out to locate it. I bought a lot of things from there including a watercolor paper pad. It is A5 in size as I like to make small artwork. I also purchased a sketchbook for oil and acrylic painting. I am going to study oil painting and try it out. Oils seem too scary. Anyway. Let me try to explain what I did:

1.  I woke up in the morning and I had this idea in mind. I sketched it out in the watercolor paper pad. 
2. Took out my watercolors, and started with a light wash of Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna. I don't have many watercolors and have to work with what I have. 
3. Working out on the details of the male dragon. I have now applied a stronger coat of the previous colors and added Prussian Blue and Black to the mix.  My hands shake a lot and I couldn't add as much details as I should have. But, I will get back to that later. For now, I am happy with how he looks. Ugly. Also, I just had 2 brushes: a thin one and a fat one. I think I need to buy more brushes. 
4. Now I shift my attention to the female dragon. I had originally thought of making the male brown and the female green, but I decided to make her orange-ish. Again. applying a wash of Orange and Chrome Yellow. 
5. Applying stronger coats of color and I introduce Red to the mix. Well, technically it was Crimson. But, I mixed it slightly with Orange and Chrome. 
6. Added Black to the mixture for shadows. A lot of artists advise against using pure black for shadows because it tends to make the painting dull. I mixed it up with Prussian Blue but I should have added more blue. Anyway. 
7. The paint was wet so I added a little salt onto the damp areas because it gives a cool effect. But, my painting wasn't as wet as it should be or something because the effect didn't really come. I wonder if I should use a different salt. 
8. I decided to speed up the drying process by holding the sketchbook in front of a heater. The orangish-yellow glow made the painting look pretty good. No? I think it does. 
9. Since I had to add details, I took out my color pencils, took out matching shades and started adding details and shadows. I then used my Pentel Brush Pen to ink the painting and add more shadows. And finally, added a wash of my Cool Grey Copic Markers (C2 and C3) 

Done. I hope you find this useful somehow.

One simply does not challenge a Dragon..

..even if one has a magical sword.

I think the dragon is going to have some fun with the little guy. Or will the little guy manage to slay the dragon?

More sketches from the sketchbook

Some old and some new sketches that I have been doing since sometime. Still waiting to order my markers. Damn things are so expensive.

Dragon, painted.

I found some old watercolors in my drawer and decided to test myself. I have always steered clear of painting because it's a lot more challenging. Okay, frankly, there is no Ctrl+Z button or Layers in real life.

So anyway, I didn't have any watercolor paper and I had to use my sketchbook's paper. Thankfully, it is a little thick and suited for markers.

Started out with a light wash of burnt sienna. Kept building more color where I wanted the shadows to be. Added black to the places where there was heavy shadow. I had intended it to be a monochromatic piece, but decided to add some yellows and oranges later. I think it is better to add black/dark colors in the end. But anyway. Since I am always so "un-decided", yellow and orange came at the end. Added a blue wash in the background. By now the paper was quite crumpled and since it's the rainy season, the paint was taking ages to dry. Turned the house upside-down and found my old hair-dryer. The paint was dry within minutes.

Once the paint was completely dry, I asked mom to straighten the paper out by ironing on it. My mom is lot more intelligent than me. She covered the paper with a cloth first and then sprinkled a bit of water and applied the press. Also, she did this on the opposite side of the paper because the stupid cloth bled some of it's own color. Anyway, no harm done. The paper was smooth and crisp again.

I took out my black and white pens and added some details. Also, color pencils.

I should do more waterpainting doodles. It was actually quite relaxing. Except waiting for the paint to dry. That was terrible. Thank God for hair-dryers. 

More dragons and stuff

Doodles over the past week.

The Beast comes.

Trying to get better with digital painting and dragons. Pretty happy with this one. 

Good dragon

Trying out some dragons because I am totally bad at drawing them. After going through some artists who are awesome, I came up with this guy. Should've taken me around an hour to do this. Maybe two.

Although I wish I had made the lower jaw a bit longer. So, just imagine it is longer okay?