My first tries (progress)

Here is the progress of my dragons using different techniques. Going to create four elementals, Fire, Earth, Air and Water. Also have a leafed Copper in the works.

The Fire dragon is using a simple palette of red, yellow and black to create a lava looking skin.

Air brushed the first layer.

Starting the black dry brushing.

and now starting on filling the scales black. He is turning out darker then I envisioned, but still interesting. The wings will be lightly antiqued in black.

And my Copper and Air Dragons in their early stages.

The Copper dragon will be completely leafed in copper then highlighted in a metallic green. The leafing process is a project in itself.

The Air dragon will have silver leafed mane and chest scales then painted using a “sky” palette.

Fun stuff !

Stephanie, that was the look I was going for, the colors of fire in the fleshy parts with the cooled crust as the dark scaly top layer. But it is turning out quite “dark”. The scales and “body bumps” are pretty closely gathered, which is making the black color fairly overpowering. All part of the learning process. It is my first piece and I am going to keep him as such no matter how he turns out.

Skigod, While it might not be the only leafed dragon, I did see one in the gallery created by Jennifer Miller in 23k gold.

The photoshopped horns are masking the issue that the horns are modified. They are spiraled pieces of epoxy embedded on stainless steel rods. I decided to remove them from the image as it is not an accepted practice. Just to touch on the subject, clarity is everything and just as with painting, you must clearly define what you have done to an item which maintains a copyright to ensure there is no confusion and this just skims the surface. If in doubt, don’t.

Thanks for the kind comments, it looks like I’m hooked.