New paintings and regular art updates.
Your choice. Multiplied image initially drawn in black ink pen, then I added black grey and pale brown shading to give the effect of layers of paper. Finally I twisted each section in my layout app to create a symmetrical pattern. Having done work on my MA based on dragons and Asian art can’t help feeling that a dragon may emerge. I would have to add a layer on to create this. Something to experiment with.
Shiny table top duplicated.
Metal scales?
Shining body
Wingbeat buffeting
Clad in sky
Scales ripple in flight
As the air squeezes
Between them.
Reflected on a table top. Polished circles look like metallic scales. A layer of smeared washing liquid leaves a texture and using the layout app on my phone I mirrored and duplicated the images. I almost see metallic blue feathers?
I need to start working on my college project. I’ve given myself time to recover from a bad cold, but I can’t ignore it. I need to produce a portfolio of images and a report to go alongside it. I’ve decided to write about the history of dragons in illustrations. Their images in world history, moving forward in time to medieval art and then the present day including their appearances in literature and film. My portfolio will be illustrations and text for a children’s book exploring colour and pattern alongside an adventure. I hoe it works out.
What does a dragon need to stay safe? If you read The Hobbit, Smaug the dragon was killed by an arrow that pierced a soft area in his skin under his arm. Dragons have to have a strong skin..
So what would it look like? I’ve been experimenting with how big the scales would be. I guess they would have to be like an alligator or crocodile skin, rather than a lizard or snake whose scales seem smaller or softer. The dragon would need fire retardant scales to prevent charring or burning either around its mouth when it is fire breathing or on the rest of its body. Maybe male dragons duel in short fights, if they were to attack each others wings they would need to be strong. Dragons wings always look vulnerable. The skin is stretched between bony fingers. Surely that could easily be holed if it were not well maintained. Lots to consider.
This started as a black and white line drawing but then I played with it by playing with the texture then using a flood fill tool to add colour. I finally put it through an Instagram filter to heighten the colours. Just a little abstract pattern.
1.23am on Wednesday morning. I’m messing about with filters to create a scaly pattern. The inks were metallic and I tried to enhance the shinyness of it. I mirrored the image four times. Yet another pattern for my current college project. One problem I face was that all the colours are quite similar and of a medium tone, it was difficult to distinguish between dark and light areas.
Post it notes and plastic metallic colour discs. Thought about a pattern that I could make, using arrow shaped post it notes I decided to place the pointed bits over the discs. Have a glue stick, water soluble, so I glued each individual piece of paper and plastic… It took two hours! By the time I’d done it (after accidentally dropping the discs and the glue stick on the floor) my fingers were covered in a sticky gluey mess. Thank goodness it’s soluble!
Covered in armour
Impenetrable scales
Against all drama
Arrows and staves
Flying above
Crawling below
Graceful as a dove
With a loud bellow!
Only a myth
An imaginary creature
Family kin and kith
In which lizards feature
Wings full of woe
Mouth full of fire
Where he does go
Things will be dire!
What is this thing
We wish will be gone?
Of it we will sing!
The inimitable Dragon!
Dragon with teardrop shaped scales. For swimming underwater, nostrils that close up with spring valves, a small mouth that can close tightly. Pressure resistant eyes and ears that can hear infrasound under the ocean. Another design idea. I duplicated and mirrored the dragon head as I had only drawn one half of it.
Mallaband-Brown