Creative Corner

[img]https://i.ibb.co/z7L6K44/salmon-dragon.png[/img] art 2 days in a row!! crazy!! anyways i always liked the legend of the carp scaling the waterfall and becoming a dragon but salmon also take absolutely wild journeys back to where they were born so i feel like they deserve to become dragons too. i wanted them to have a proper dorsal fin but i couldn't figure out how to make it look nice so i compensated by putting fins everywhere else, i could've continued the webbing pattern on the tail but it kind of morphed into a similar crest that my dragon sona used to have (toned down you don't want to know how bad her design was) and i thought the idea of it transitioning into the tail fin was cool. a salmon like "beak" would've been neat for the head but im a fan of blunt faced dragons, it reminds me of something but actually i have no idea what that something is T_T i finished this before the video i was listening to finished, around an hour of drawing then not bad.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/1MGKCNb/dragonfruit.png[/img] wow briar you sure have been drawing a lot of designs and not your own characters what gives? well today i learned im being insecure about my own talents so i was pushing myself to try and work on character design to try and make up for my struggles with it. i've been talking to so many wonderful artists (ok talking is a stretch for leaving comments on a thread) and im worried my own characters don't have as much punch as theirs. and yes this is purely a me problem and confidence in your own craft is something every artist has to struggle with. im not here to impress anyone, im here because i think a creative pursuit is necessary for your health and i've chosen drawing. but i do think pushing myself a little is helping in some way, at least i think this design is cool so i succeeded in that right. also its good practice to get the shape of a dragon down. again i've no idea if people are really poking in here but if you see a design you like i'd be fine with just flat out giving it away (minus the autumn furby who still isn't a character but i have some attatchment to that concept) i'd hate for something someone feels drawn to to just sit there doing nothing. oh yeah i didn't even say what this dragon was based on, i mean its probably very obvious but its dragonfruit which i learned today grows from cacti. the plant itself looks like a spiny tree its really dope.

this design is so neat, the fiery look of the horns/mane is really cool!! i've seen many a dragonfruit-inspired design but i feel like i usually don't see them lean into including the seeds, so i think the black speckles on the belly and wings are a really nice touch x)
i love the concept of the salmon dragon too omg...

@XXVeil i was planning to draw antlers but the moment i started drawing the horns i knew i had no idea what i was doing and just made them spiky instead, i realize now i've just been hiding where horns are supposed to connect to the head or simply drawing them as an extension i hope this isn't a bad habit XD

i didn't even realize the spikes could look like fire, i can't do gradients so i at least want the illusion of a color changing or fading into another. glad you like the salmon design too, despite how quickly that took me i was really struggling on where to put fins. im seeing a pattern with the crests/spines too which im not shocked at, i feel like spikes are an essential dragon feature but i never drew them much transitioning to other characters so that might be my way to add those elements back into a design.

(saluting emoji) i totally get that, antlers are a big struggle for me.... :') that reminds me a little while back i was commissioned to draw a dragon with cactus based motifs, which gave me the idea to draw antlers that resembled saguaro cacti ... i thought it was fun even if a bit cheesy, we didn't end up going with that in the end though LOL

i think you pulled off that color changing effect nicely!! and in either case i think the segmented color look is nice too x)
i like the fin placements you went with for the salmon, if anything keeping it simple is never a bad option i think haha! that's a cool way to think about it though with dragon features and whatnot... also made me realize how i hardly draw spiny dragons or at least draw a Lot more feathered/furred ones in comparison whoops

@XXVeil im a big proponent of anything can be a dragon as long as you call it one so im always happy to see any kind of different interpretation, dragons across the world can be pretty varied anyways. im most familiar with european dragons so i can't imagine drawing mine with anything but scales, i don't know if i've even drawn feathered wings for one! though i grew up with a lot of dragons in media being friendly or protagonists, this is more of a recent thing for me but its hard not to make cute or at least nonthreatening dragons now. you'd think with all my dragon statues and figures i own that wouldn't be the case, maybe spyro was a much bigger influence than i ever thought.

[img]https://i.ibb.co/7jPzrNk/cynder.png[/img] i wanted to draw something grander with cynder but honestly i think this is a fine piece regardless, im not sure if it comes off as dynamic despite her just standing (crouching?) there with her wind powers. despite being involved in the tlos community this is actually the first time i've ever drawn cynder, i have drawn spyro once or twice though. i went with her black and red colorscheme from a new begining/the eternal night because her being purple in dotd conflicts with the entire narrative and i don't know why that design choice was made. actually to be honest i have no idea what's happening with her colors in general, concept art and her in game models are different. tlos are very stylized games but i wanted to use my own style instead of trying to match the games too heavily, i got all her details in and did alter her snout to be more beak like but she's compact like all my dragons are. i've got a lot of free time at the moment, can't really leave the house so i should be spending more time drawing. i can get motivated as soon as i start but the problem is starting, so maybe there will be more pieces in the next week or so or maybe not lol.