BIG WIP -- Sea Dragon and Horses
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Thanks to all who helped with my former WIP but I decided to change it.
So concept is....a young sea dragon surrounded by sea horses. He is one of a kind, and his strange looks attract sea horses of all the animals.
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Update! Let's just pretend that seahorses arent territorial and that they live in groups.
Not sure if I should draw every strand of seagrass or not
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Discovered critters called Leafy Seadragons so....sea dragon meeting seadragons! Angled the big dragon's head to look more expressive. Took some hints from some SVS classes and simplifying the seadragons into a cartoony style
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I real love the changes you made, this is delightful! I especially like the dragons expression and the leafy seadragon(s) wrapped around the dragons tail ^_^
Find me on Facebook and instagram under NizhoniWolf, for my sketches, musings and W.I.P's!
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@nizhoniwolf in honesty the leafy seadragons were supposed to be grappling to a piece of seagrass, but now I'm changing it to a tail! Thanks for the advice!
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I think I'm done? I am not 100% sure about the colors but theres not really a way to adjust them other than with Photoshop or using darker watercolors.
I was watching the Composition 2.0 class so I tried to incorporate line weight and framing and keeping the main two characters lighter compared to the rest of the scene
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Ahhhh! So cute!!! And I just love that you know seahorse behavior and had to adjust reality in order to make this image - I run into that dilemma too
I really love the expression of the dragon here - it makes it approachable, and the colors that you chose for the whole image are harmonious and give the whole image a playful feel.
Watercolor is tricky to change once it's down - so this feedback is perhaps good for thought for future work? But I really love this idea, so I selfishly hope you do it over once a year and use it as the image that shows the progress of your work - but I digress -
The little sea horses are really hard to read - I think it has to do with two things. The color of them just flows into the rest of the image and they get lost. They just don't read as vibrant as the dragon. You could possibly do another wash of yellow over them, but since you're using pen and ink with the watercolor you could also thicken the line width a bit - just enough to give them shape but not lose their wispiness. And maybe even put some light detail into them. Another thing is their shape - sea horses are so easy to break down into symbols that read as sea horses - you did it with the dragon and I love how it made him pop and gave you the opportunity to give him expressions. The problem with sea dragons is they read as seaweed - which hey, is their natural form of protection. But for an illustration, with objects so delicate, you want them to say "I'm a sea dragon!" At first glance. My suggestion is to either play around with drawing sea dragons until you get a shape that speaks to their identity at first glance, or perhaps draw them as sea horses.
Mermay is coming up, and this would be a really rad story to tell
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@kaitlinmakes Thanks for the feedback! Yes definitely, for another time when I want to revisit this piece, I have to work on giving them expressions and a clear form. I really wished I worked intentionally with the lines, but next time. Id want to revisit this in digital for sure!
