I've loved reading through this thread; you all bring up a lot of valid points and I especially appreciate the demonstration of varying head shapes that got added to the front page.
There's an entire world of animals and mythology to pull ideas from for dragon designs, and while there have been some real standout ancients -- Aberrations and Aethers come to mind -- a lot of them feel like they just haven't been pushed far enough. A lot of them are very safe designs. And after a certain number of those very safe designs I really start to crave something different.
Variety is the spice of character designs. I think if the artists could make all the modern secondary genes and all the site's existing apparel work on Obelisks, a breed with a massive curly mane to accommodate, then a wider assortment of proportions and anatomy and shape language and body plans in a context where you don't even have to worry about clothes is something the art team is more than capable of executing. I really hope that we get to see more of that kind of variety down the line.
Ridgebacks and Bogsneaks and Snappers may not be the most popular breeds, but the site would be lesser without their being here.
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Just to contribute a small example of my own... Undertides. I have my criticisms of them, and if I were in charge of designing them I would execute pretty differently on the concept, but they're largely fine. They're big snake-like sea serpents. It works. They're pretty cool.
But imagine if, say, you decided to take their fairly "standard" reptilian facial structure, which is pretty common among FR's dragons already, and pushed it to be more like one of the animals that inspired them, eels:
Even with just that small change, I think that looks more interesting! That's a face we haven't seen on any of the other dragon breeds, it's appropriate for the breed's theme and other inspirations, it's weird and delightful.
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And as an aside;
Oh I sympathize so much about invertebrates. I've been trying to study bugs more this year to figure out how to draw them, and there's so few resources or good reference photos, it's driving me batty. I'm basically having to do 100% of the work learning to stylize them on my own. But search up dogs and you've got a zillion illustrators interpretations to look for ideas in...
There's an entire world of animals and mythology to pull ideas from for dragon designs, and while there have been some real standout ancients -- Aberrations and Aethers come to mind -- a lot of them feel like they just haven't been pushed far enough. A lot of them are very safe designs. And after a certain number of those very safe designs I really start to crave something different.
Variety is the spice of character designs. I think if the artists could make all the modern secondary genes and all the site's existing apparel work on Obelisks, a breed with a massive curly mane to accommodate, then a wider assortment of proportions and anatomy and shape language and body plans in a context where you don't even have to worry about clothes is something the art team is more than capable of executing. I really hope that we get to see more of that kind of variety down the line.
Ridgebacks and Bogsneaks and Snappers may not be the most popular breeds, but the site would be lesser without their being here.
--
Just to contribute a small example of my own... Undertides. I have my criticisms of them, and if I were in charge of designing them I would execute pretty differently on the concept, but they're largely fine. They're big snake-like sea serpents. It works. They're pretty cool.
But imagine if, say, you decided to take their fairly "standard" reptilian facial structure, which is pretty common among FR's dragons already, and pushed it to be more like one of the animals that inspired them, eels:
Even with just that small change, I think that looks more interesting! That's a face we haven't seen on any of the other dragon breeds, it's appropriate for the breed's theme and other inspirations, it's weird and delightful.
---
And as an aside;
Requacy wrote on 2024-04-21 14:00:18:
I think part of the reason is that artists- self-taught or trained, aren't generally told how to draw fat animals. Most of the resources that exist generally trend towards dogs, horse, and rather muscular birds like raptors. (Not to mention heaven forbid you want to draw invertebrates.)
Oh I sympathize so much about invertebrates. I've been trying to study bugs more this year to figure out how to draw them, and there's so few resources or good reference photos, it's driving me batty. I'm basically having to do 100% of the work learning to stylize them on my own. But search up dogs and you've got a zillion illustrators interpretations to look for ideas in...
Ancient dragons. They have been doing this pretty consistently, I feel. Could possibly push these even further if they wanted to.
