David Petersen's Blog: Ember Ferret Dragon

Last Friday on my Twitch Stream, we did the our very first #DiscoveringDragons Community-Draw-Along (First Friday of every month). I worked on my piece live on my Twitch stream while viewers worked at home and then on Monday we shared our finished pieces.

Here is my finished colored Ember Ferret Dragon. And below are my steps to create it as well as the community submissions.

For #DiscoveringDragons, I post two or three prompt words for everyone to make into a dragon. It's a nice framework for artists of any skill level to focus some time on an 'assignment' to shake the rust off or get the pencil moving again––all while also being loose enough that there's plenty of room for individual expression and interpretation.

This month the prompt words were Ferret & Ember. I opened a few tabs of google image searches of those words as well as one for 'dragons' as well as another artist I was inspired by 'Nora Patwora'

I started with a pencil drawing on copy paper of the ferret shape and I slowly started adding dragon features like the belly scale plates and the horns. To incorporate 'ember' into the piece, I decided that all the dragon-ish parts would have a texture like glowing embers on a log in a fire. I also applied that idea to the ferret mask markings.

The wings I actually drew on a separate sheet of copy paper because I'd taken a few stabs at loose shapes on the original paper and wasn't happy. In photoshop I was able to combine the two drawings into this piece to the left.

After I was happy with my above design, I printed that piece out on copy paper and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. Using a lightpad, I was able to see through the surface of the bristol as I inked the dragon. I used Copic Multiliner 0.7 & 0.3 SP pens to ink the art. I worked on the fur contours first, then dove in to the texture of the glowing ember bits. As I inked I started adding more of the falling ash and embers falling from his floating form.

I was able to scan the piece and establish some color holds (areas where I want the ink to be a color other than black) before needing to sign off the stream for the night. I wished everyone luck with their pieces and told them we'd take a look at everyone's work on Monday.

After I had a break and some dinner, I got back into the coloring. That first step is to flat in the colors, basically professional coloring-in-the-lines.

For the final colors and all the highlights, shading, and texture I used the dodge and burn tools with a stock photoshop texture brush. I also selected areas and used the color balance tool to tint them warmer or cooler. Below you can again see the final rendered dragon.