Dragons, day 6: Finishing everything!

The last day’s painting was added details and some rocks. Some of the details were, necessarily, pretty big. The dragonling counted as one detail, for example, but its snake head and eager lizard face add life and movement to the

Dragons: Day 5 – the dragon

This day was spread out over a couple of painting sessions, to allow the paint to dry, but the underpainting took no more than a couple of hours, so I’m calling it a single day. I knew the dragon in

Dragons: Day 4 – the rocks

Day 4 was a faintly annoying day. I had to mix a blue that was darker than the colour out by the entrance, as if the yellow had been removed as the sunlight faded. However, there was not any yellow

Dragons: Day 3 – the lighting

The dragon cave is going to be made up of receding layers of rock, going back towards the outside, where a dragon is silhouetted. The further back a layer, the earlier I should be painting it, which in this case

Dragons: Day 2a – Really Boring Underpainting

Today’s ‘fun’ was putting the undercolour onto a canvas for my dragon painting. It’s the colour of a big chunk of the painting itself, and the part that I will want to do roughly. This means that any breaks I

Dragons: Day 2 – Watercolour Layout

Today was the first day I’ll be charging my Dragon-loving client. The first days of sketching were on postcards, to get me used to posing dragons; it is unfair to make a client pay for my early efforts, before I

Dragons: Day 1 – Initial Sketching

Last week I brought in a new commission, on the subject of great big winged flying majestic lizards – I’m going to be painting dragons. The client would like to replace a print over her mantelpiece, meaning it’s going to