Week 37 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

I really didn't sketch something new this week. I finished coloring last week's sketch. I had sketched my first full-size dragon with a simple landscape from J. "Neon Dragon" Peffer's book: Dragonart Evolution: How to Draw Everything Dragon. I'm enjoying doing the exercises in this book to improve my dragon drawings.

This week I finished my first full-size medieval dragon exercise.

Full-size medieval dragon. 9" x 12" Pencil and Prismacolor colored pencils on mixed-media paper.

Last week, I had completed the sketch and had just started adding color with Prismacolor pencils. I continued layering color to get the depth and shading this week. This large of a drawing took quite a bit of time to get the darker colors laid in.

I had some trouble with the wings, getting the shading to look the way I wanted it to look. I'm satisfied, but it definitely could use some improvement. Hot-press illustration board would work better for colored pencil with this much layering, as it has more tooth than the mixed-media paper and can handle more layers and burnishing. But, this is a learning process. The mixed-media journal is easier to carry around for sketching and is less expensive! Also, these are exercises - not my own work - so the journal is best for now.

I had to do my first full-size dragon in color and with a landscape background, but I don't think I'll do all of the rest of them that way. I want to finish learning what I can from Peffer, especially the baby dragons, and start creating my own dragons.

So many ideas, so little time!!!

Keep creating!!