Dragon Whelp WIP

jmiles

a quick character i wanted to do.. started and finished it in a few hours yesterday... just finished the first book of the Eragon series and wanted to model a dragon based off of Saphira..

John Warner

hey dude, neat stuff. i think you've got a good start, but i think it could use some tweekage.

right now he's very cute looking. is that what you're going for? if i were you i'd study some really powerful strong forms and copy that.. find some paintings of dragons (there are lots) and if you're going for something badass (i thought dragons were about being badass) then find out what it is about the shapes of that reference that make it look so hard mothafuckin core.

or, if you're going for something cute and childish, i would change certain things to push it more in that direction.

but hey, if nothing is true and everything is permitted, then all of these critiques are meaningless... there's really no up or down so there's no way to learn... ah man.. the swamp. the swamp. i've been there.

The Master Elite

Is the swamp called Ulmdread perchance? :P

...yeah, I'd suggest references heavily, you just need to find one that suits you well. While text is also good as a "foundational" reference, having and not having a pic to work off of is a world of difference.

To elaborate off Sir Warner's post, if you want kid-friendly, Chris D'Lacey's dragon oriented series has some great cover art you could use as a reference at least part-ways. For a more vicious and fierce aim, look at the concept art the poor mortals that attempted to do a film adaptation made first. They did well on the art area of things as far as Saphira's concerned...just phailed at everything else, more or less.

jmiles

haha thanks john... actually he is going for a "cutsie" look.. it's a baby dragon.. so i focused on a larger head and eyes, short and stout trunky arms... the books said that even when saphira was just fresh out of the egg, she was still pretty muscular.. i could tone that down a bit i'm sure, but i still kinda like how it looks.. one thing i think i will do is go back and start making his scales visible... and some better texture to his seemingly smooth or slimey skin look, perhaps make the membrane of his wings a little more translucent w/ a vascular system.

this is more of a speed model test for myself.. i wanted to post this up on the low poly forums but it's a little big.. so i figured i would just make my own thread.. i know i said in another thread that it was about 9 hours that it took me to finish this model, but i think it was actually less than that, i didnt account for the meal break and some computer hardware issues.. but i think in all reality i did this in about 7... i'd like my time for something as small as this to take perhaps 4 hours to make.. so it's just for the practice..

thanks for the crits tho.. and dont mind the signature.. it was a quote from Assassin's Creed that kinda blew my mind a little.. it's true in somethings but not all things.. your crits are important to me and everybody else here who wants to get better at this..

jmiles

ah yes.. and as for the reference.. i just recently bought the Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.. i borrowed some of the anatomical reference from profile views of Sindragosa's skeletal studies.. so perhaps i should look further into translating the anatomy from a fully matured dragon to a baby a bit better.. i learned a lot tho while doing this.. and perhaps i'd like to make a series of dragons.. maybe a series starting w/ this hatchling to a fully grown behemoth.. drawings or models.. we'll see