Better Times

Posted Jun 7, 2020, 2:41:48 AM UTC

So in fun news, PD (for the time being) is going to become my primary art site! I've been on here for a few years now, but the low traffic made a different site a better pick for that title- but with the recent changes here, including the wonderful influx of draco stryx users (hello if that's you!), and with my main site having changed into something that I can't effectively use anymore, I decided to make this corner of the internet my home.

That announcement aside, I'm incredibly happy to be finally done with this - while it may have looked like I've been making things steadily, but the last art I posted was done in mid-April. I've been working on this piece since early May, and have put... 20ish hours of work into it? Since it features a new character of mine, I wanted him to make a good "first appearance," but between experimenting with the irridescence of his scales, doubling back on work done much earlier in the piece to fix mistakes that went initially unnoticed, and trying several tecniques to handle water with a partially submerged character before finding one that worked with my approach, the time I expected for it to take kept growing, as did the standard I held it to. The outcome feels worth it, though I hope not to spend so much time on a single piece again for a long time!

The dragon's name is Kamon, and he's one twin-headed wyvern from my story Wake of Eidolon. I've already posted art of the other, Nolous, but Kamon is the protagonist of the story. I spent a load of time on his design as well, but I'll go more into that once I post his ref sheet, haha. I affectionately call him my watermelon boy. As a heads up, a lot of the work I'll be putting up in the near future will follow WoE and not Nest of Hearts, a different story of mine that currently is recieving some conceptual focus... however, I also intend to make WoE into a comic, since it compliments what I like to draw - a ton of dragons. The pilot chapter of WoE is up here, in the writing section~

Art and Kamon belong to me.

Don't repost, trace, or otherwise use, this is for my use only.

Comments

Areetala
Jun 8, 2020, 10:26:36 PM UTC
Kamon looks so cool! I love the contrast between the green and red. It's a color combo that, admitedly, I'm not usually a fan of, but you make the colors work so well. I

love how you did the transparency of the water too. It looks really nice with the soft and subtle ripples against the more detailed wyvern and plants
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- MaskedLin
  Jun 9, 2020, 1:41:14 AM UTC
  I spent a long time in the conceptual part of his design working how to incorporate different aspects from his inspirations into the design, so it's validating to hear it pays off! I know what you mean about green and red- its used so often in Christmas stuff (and in so little else) that its hard to work the colors into a serious design. Special attention definitely has to be paid into the specific hues and value of the reds and greens for sure.
  
  Oh man, the water was hands down the most difficult part of an already difficult piece! I had to find a whole new technique for it, and the tutorials I kept finding online wouldn't apply to how I had the character in the water... I'm still surprised that I worked it out as well as I did, haha.Thank you!
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Kassuna
Jun 8, 2020, 3:21:26 PM UTC
I adore the heck out of the style and colours.
I love your background! It's so lovely and stylish. :3
I'd love to do better with my own backgrounds, gota keep trying.
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- MaskedLin
  Jun 9, 2020, 1:47:27 AM UTC
  Thank you! I've spent a long time crafting my style into what it is and I'm very happy with it I've always been a sucker for a good background, I find my pieces usually don't feel complete without one.
  
  I highly recommend doing landscape studies to improve in that regards- it can be boring, but with good research about the content of the setting and without a character to draw the focus, it makes you really think about the composition and how to make it interesting in its own right. I'm still in the process of incorporating what I learned during my recent study into my main art (little to none of that progress ended up in this piece actually), but I'm hoping to see a rise in the quality of the scenery in my pieces because of it!
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  Kassuna
  Jun 16, 2020, 2:58:42 AM UTC
  Oh wow! My backgrounds have always been kind of lame.
  Participating in Dracostryx did improve my art and backgrounds though.
  
  I shall do this. I'll try to spend more time on each of my pieces now. I want to do a comic but need to settle on a style before starting it.
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  MaskedLin
  Jun 16, 2020, 3:42:43 PM UTC
  I'm trying to get into comics too, but my main style doesn't work well with that so I need to figure out how I can speed up the process and prevent over cluttering the page. Good luck to both of us on our background and comic progress!
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