developing your ideas

Discover how to take a dragon drawing from sketch to final painting

Pencil sketch

Most of my dragons start in my sketchbook, and are done as loose pencil drawings. When I come up with a design that I like, I scan it and continue to build it up in Photoshop, adding rough colours and lighting until I have a clear idea of how it will look when I move on to painting the creature on the canvas.

Underpainting

Once I’ve completed the sketch, I transfer the drawing to my painting surface and seal it with a wash of watered-down acrylic paint. Then I proceed to block in the major shapes of the painting. I’m trying to maintain a balance between being precise in my mark-making, without becoming too fussy or precious about tiny details.

After I have the whole painting surface covered, I go back with a smaller brush to add detail and refine shapes where necessary. This is also where I might add glazes to adjust colour or value, as well as soften edges. This stage can be short or long, depending on the painting. It’s an act of pushing and pulling until it looks good.