September-December Week 9 07/12/10

Exercise 5
This exercise will incorporate composition, figure drawing, lighting and storytelling.

As always with these exercises, I began with a series of thumbnails to help decide the point of view of the image.

Although thumbnail 1 (above) is very dynamic and intense, I felt it was not going to allow you to develop other areas such as landscape and a narrative, so I pulled back for a wider shot.

In thumbnail 2 (above) we can clearly see that the hero battling the beast has ended up on the top of a ruin of which there is no easy escape and we can also see the terrain he has battled through, and also there is evidence of  possibly, previously failed attempts at slaying the beast..
With his composition, the image can also be cropped tighter to cut out the landscape and give a shorter narrative.

I also considered the benefits of the dragon having his wings wrapped around the battle area or fully splayed out.

I will leave it to you which version to follow. You will notice further down that I have drawn the wings folded, but I have since decided to have them fully opened, so if you decide to do otherwise, refer to the thumbnail. Part 2 of this exercise will show the revised wings.

Step 1
Loosely sketch out the rough shapes that compose the image.
It may help to draw a faint vertical centre line to help balance the shapes.

Step 2
Still keeping the line work loose at this stage, sketch out the limbs of the dragon and mark out the spiral steps.

Step 3
Try not to rush the steps as this could spoil your drawing. Take time to plot them. They don't have to be technically precise, because they are part of a ruin and show decay, but they want to look convincing so keep the spaces in proportion.
I have also added a rubble of skulls and bones as a device to lead the viewer into the scene. This however is optional.

Step 4
Here the dragon has been defined.

Step 4 (Detail)
Here is a blown up version of the warrior so you can get the muscle detail.

Step 5
Now establish the light source.
In this case the light source is from below.