Final Dragon Concept

I realised that I hadn't posted the final dragon design that I created.

The initial sketch for my final design took quite a while to process. Due to the many options and looks I had come across during my research, it was hard to make up my mind which would look and work best. I also had to keep in mind my own abilities/limits and not go over-board with the details, and keep the geometry clean, tidy and simple.

I also had to make sure that the dragon I was creating would be anatomically functional as well, and not just decorative, as this will make the dragon more realistic when rendered and easier to model. Details such as eye position, legs/toes and wing structure was very important.

The dragon is well balanced in size and bulk.

Front view of dragon based on the side sketch.

Sketches of front/hind legs. Each foot has 4 fingers/toes, apart from the wing which has 5.

After making sure everything looked all right with the pencil sketch, I scanned the image and cleaned up the lines in Photoshop. At the same time, I made some adjustments to the sketch and measured the front/side views to match perfectly for when used as blueprints in 3ds Max later.

I also decided to colour the dragon in Photoshop to give me an idea of what kind of colour palette to use later on. For this I started off with the same sketches as earlier, based on the re-touched line-art.

After many long hours, I finished the colouring process, and although it is just an idea, it could well be the final design too.

The body would mainly be a dark-ish colour, either black, dark grey or brown. Specks of beige or light grey/yellow would cover the "softer" areas (head, throat, belly, tail and legs). Horns would be light grey with some darker areas, and the inside of the wing is a rusty orange/brown/red colour. The outside of the wing is the same colour as the dragon itself. Eyes would be amber or golden to match the markings. Scales would cover the whole body apart from the wing arm and membrane. The dragon would be twice the size of a full-grown man, and four times his length with its wings straight up. The wing is approximately the size of the dragon itself.

Close up view of some of the details.