Smaugust: A Love for Dragons
In my mind dragons represent the height of fantasy, the best of mythical creatures, a beast with endless possibilities. I've found that I love them in any form; from god-like to demonic, from beast to sentient being, laughable and loveable to terrifying and horrific, and from simply a physical creature to a thing of magic and awe. Their designs are almost as extensive and flexible as those of humans, where as I find other races within fantasy rather limited and living within specific characteristics. Those other races, though still wonderful, are not as versatile as dragons.
I have tried to draw dragons throughout my art career and find that there are times I come close to what is in my head, but more often than not I end up with something...lacking...at best. To try and leave the cartoony look behind and find a more realistic approach leaves me fumbling a bit, but determination and consistency will, hopefully, pay off in the end. At the moment I take the normal combination of reptile and bat, and try and combine it with either a horse, dog, or cat aesthetic. I often use photo reference for simple sketches in order to try and stray away from the cartoonish, or inexperienced look. Derpy dragons have a place of course, but most the time I'm looking for other qualities in the beasts. When my skills at bringing these magnificent dream-creatures to life have reached a level of believability then I will be satisfied I think. Until then I have to beat back the fear of trying something I don't feel stable in and continue marching forward, sketching them often; drawing animals often doesn't hurt either.
It's too easy to not try drawing something just because it's 'new', or difficult, and dragons are definitely one area where fear has to be tossed aside and I have to expect to make mistakes, to not be perfectly happy with every design I come up with. Conquering drawing dragons is, in a way, turning me from my comfortable place of drawing and painting what I feel I know and broadening my willingness to experiment, leaving fears aside and getting comfortable with just drawing or painting whatever may come. Sometimes my fears pull me into a different area; digging forever for photo reference of things that don't exist, studying other artist's renditions beyond what is necessary, and continually rethinking the design in my head, which some of each of those areas is good, but if done to an extreme it is just another sign of fear. Simply, it's putting off what really needs to happen, and that is drawing the thing out, seeing what you might come up with, working through the process of design and then adding research to it once you have a ground to start from.
I get stuck on the things I love in art the most; armor, action poses, buildings, and dragons.
So here we are, in the month of August, and on many social media platforms the drawing prompt for this month is called 'Smaugust', or the month of dragons, named in honor of J. R. R. Tolkien's dragon Smaug from The Hobbit. I don't participate in every month's drawing prompts, but once in a while I see one that I think fits with what I am trying to accomplish. So for the month of August, for Smaugust, I took a little time to draw, for the fun of it, a chubby dragon. I used a little reference, mostly of a fat cat curled up, paws tucked in, looking rather content and probably purring. I'm sure my dragon is purring as well...or snoring. Probably snoring from the looks of it.
In this I've actually put forth some effort to attack three areas that I find difficult; the dragon of course, buildings or manmade structures, and tiny people. Tiny people are incredibly difficult for me. I need more practice drawing them most of all I'm sure!
I plan on continuing to fight my fears in art; as I discover them I plan on attacking them straight on. For every subject that confuses me, or I'm nervous to try, I'll try it until the fear goes away. I'll continue advancing my skills until I feel confident in as many areas as possible. I would encourage others to do the same; fight your dragons, overcome them, don't allow them to stand in the way of your personal progression. As you conquer them you will find freedom.
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