Hi everybody!
I love seeing the artist’s process as much as admiring the finished piece.
I know there are a lot of folks that love it too, so I decided to share my WIP shots of my “Hopeful Warrior” painting.
These types of little human vs. dragon images always make me shrug. Personally, I think they are done to death, and nobody is being creative with them, as they all look the same. Everyone wants to show the sense of scale, and that’s it. As a storyteller, I find these scenes somewhat laughable, because they strain anyone’s suspension of disbelief.
Instead, I’d like to see visual storytellers being more creative and imaginative. If you’re going to do a dragon vs. hero image, at least make it truly unique and interesting, instead of regurgitating what others have already done a thousand times. Think of how the hero could actually slay a dragon–what clever ways he could use against the dragon. Make us believe that the hero actually stands a chance, instead of give us an image where the only thing we think, is that in the next moment, the hero’s going to get roasted by the dragon’s fire-breath, crushed under its huge claw, or blown off the face of the mountain by its powerful wings.
My advice to artists who are illustrators, is to work hard at being an excellent visual storyteller too, instead of only working on your art skills.
One thing about the figure - the pose is all wrong for using a sword - he’s off balance, and if he swung a broadsword like that (getting past holding one in one hand - they’re HEAVY), he’d fall over. Fighting with broadswords requires planting both feet solidly, and then stepping into the swing, using both hands. Big swords aren’t handled like lighter blades where you cut and slash - broadswords are designed to take limbs off, and cut through armor. They’re for hacking up your opponent.
Also, why is he swinging, when the dragon is so far away? And to be really nitpicky, generally armor does not allow for that kind of extreme movement - a person wearing armor would probably not be able to raise his arm that high.
If you have a chance, and have access to the Society For Creative Anacronism and/or Renn Faires, go watch people who fight in real armor. It’s eye opening. It will also give you a feel for how someone with that gear would move. (They tend to be very sloooooow).
Also, the knight would be more likely to have the shield up in front of his face, not down low like that. The point of a shield is to hide behind it, and keep it in front of you as much as possible.
A more realistic set of gear in a situation like this would be ring mail and a lance/polearm, IMHO.
If you work in the fantasy genre, I would urge you to start studying real armor and weapons, and how they’re used. It makes paintings like this more believable if you start with reality, and embellish upon it to make it more fantasy.
@Lunatique
I know your feeling… I did this piece about a year ago and it was my first major painting with an tablet. I thought that repeating what the good ones were doing was enough. And by the time, perhaps it was… and I quote Jon Schindehette here: “Dont try to run, before you can walk.”
I was (AND STILL AM) learning. And since I’m self-taught, making mistakes is necessary. hahaha
I was far more concerned with the dragon’s anatomy than with the storytelling factor on this piece.
But now I’m more aware of what makes a good piece a good piece (storytelling, definitely being one of them), and I’m trying to incorporate it on my work.
Let’s see what can I do!
@BillyWJ
Again… It was my first major fantasy painting. I wasn’t aware of that much details, and of what it takes to make the unbelievable, believable. I’m always trying to get better, and this kind of details are something that I’ll be looking for to incorporate in my future works.
But if we’re going to be so critical about it, then probably I’d have to portrait a warrior with nothing but polar bear skin (some sort of eskimo, perhaps) , since, I don’t really think that anybody, with, even a ring mail, would survive such cold and such heights, and still be able to try to fight.
But I did the choice of this kind of armor thinking about visual appeal.
And for the pose, I thought of him kinda yelling, frustrated, facing, powerless, his own death.
And not trying to defend himself over the shield.
And just for the record, I love dragons! I don’t think I’ll ever portrait somebody with any chance of defeating one of them! hahahahaha :bounce:
The scale of the mountain is not right. It looks like Mt. Everest with a dragon behind it, which would make the dragon something like 10,000 feet tall…and near a mile away from the knight. It’s mostly the way you textured the mountain that gives it this distant look. Also, it doesn’t really look like the dragon is looking at the knight…the knight appears too much prepared for how far away the dragon is.
Just don’t feel that we’re being mean with our comments - I understand you’re just starting out, so you may not be used to full-throttle critiques. I learned to have thick skin in college, majoring in Illustration - we had to put our work up in front of the class, and defend oour work to the other students, and it was BRUTAL - but you learn a lot doing it, which hopefully occurs here in these threads. Plus, our professor put it bluntly - if you can’t defend your work, you’ll never make it professionally. He was right, I’ve had brutal, aweful comments from clients, where I had to defend my work, and teach them why I was right!
Anyway, keep going, that’s all that matters. I always say, go to the source, or reality, and get a good solid grasp on it, before you take artistic license. If you look at the masters, they all have a solid foundation to their ideas, which gives the work a certain authenticity, which makes the more fantastical elements work. You can always make your own “rules” for the worlds you paint, but these days, people are more versed in things like sword fighting and armor, having seen extremely authentic and very detailed versions in the movies.
As for the pose - think about maybe more of an aggressive pose - both feet firmly planted, with arms stretched out, like he’s bellowing “I’m here! Come get me!”. You’re on the right track, setting up tension between the figure and the dragon.
No problem, man. I didn’t take it bad.
I was probably playing defensive… I’m not really used to this kind of critiques. But this is what these foruns are for.
And your tips are very helpful. I’ll definitely keep an eye on these details next!
I think you did a good job. These drawings takes time and you put down a lot of effort to finish this, so props to that! I do agree on what lunatique said about illustrators should struggle to tell a story and not just go with the mass. I do not agree with the mountains looking like Mount Everest, the scale is somewhat good and you managed to create a dramatic feeling. Also I disagree with all the people always saying “that swords is way to heavy to hold with one hand” Dragon doesn’t exist either. This is a fantasy drawing and I’ve seen a lot of strong knights swinging sword of this size with one hand. Ofc realistic pose like the sword is really heavy adds to the realism and I think it would be a cool idea not to make the knight so heroic and noble instead you could make him really tired and stumbling, tired after the long journey to the dragon.
I think the arm that he holds the sword with is looking wrong, I know anatomy can be boring but it is really fun when you actually get into it, really interesting.
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