#frfantart

[melonmarzal]

Dergtober Day 30: Mimic

Mynx is a dragon who has the ability to fully mimic inanimate objects! I drew her with some of her draconic features so that it is obvious that it is her, but when she wants to, she can be indistinguishable from an ordinary piece of furniture.

[stories-in-the-wind]

Banaby Bumble - he/him,  Clan SIlverwind (Beekeeper)

Barnaby’s nickname turned out to be a rather curious coincidence, lovingly granted by Pereninala after a few weeks of him living in the clan but before he had ever touched a bee hive. She found him charming in the way he bumbled around the clan as he was first learning where everything was and so chose to refer to him as “Bumble”. It took a few more weeks of living with the clan’s farmers before he decided to raise bees to pollinate the farm grounds, thus fulfilling his nickname in more than one ways. Barnaby is a soft dragon. Soft spoken, gentle, caring and the dragon you go to if you're looking for a hug. He is one of the most popular dragons in the clan. As quiet as he may be (often preferring the company of his hives), he spends a third of his time at the market selling honey and a third of his time socializing at the lodge. 

He keeps his fur long as a means of preventing bee stings, however that has never been much of a problem for him. In decorating his wings with fresh flowers, he often has many little friends buzzing around him at any given time, completely calm in his presence. He dyes his mane in black and yellow to blend in with his bees and keep them comfortable, though everyone else is pretty sure that’s not the reason behind his natural grace when handling the prickly insects.

[first-class-coatl-emporium]

Throwback to what is probably my first ever finished drawing of a coatl several years ago, it's Dunny! I think I've gotten a bit better since then!!

[mothnox]

Quick drawing of Henti, one of my newer faes that I found at fodder price but got really attached to.

[deadwapiti-fr]

The White Raven Seer

[serpentariusart]

Make your dragons ~unique~

Hey guys! I figured I’d make a little post talking to you guys about various aspects of your dragon’s you can change to give them a more unique design. All too often I see artists here drawing each breed the same way each time, but it doesn’t have to be so! There’s nothing wrong with taking liberties and experimenting with features. I only focus on heads here, but each tip can easily be taken into consideration when drawing the rest of the body too!

First up, face shapes This is an easy one. Simply changing the proportions and lines around the face/head can give you very different looks. The spiral on the left has a noticeable change from the head to the snout, giving them more of a muzzle. The spiral on the right has a much straighter snout, and a longer face too. Changing face shapes can help with personality, too.

For example, a grumpy war-veteran would have a more angular face, with downcast eyes and straight edges. A friendly, bubbly baker might have more rounded feathers, with large eyes and expressive ears.

Mane type This does of course only apply to those with manes! Straight, loose, wavy, curly. It’s just like human hair! Even a two dragons with very short mane could have very different types. The left pearlcatcher has smooth, flowing mane, whilst the left pearlcatcher is more unkempt and wild. Manes can also be used to enforce ideas about a dragon’s personality.

Hairstyles Here’s a good one! Hairstyles can totally change the appearance of a dragon. Shaved mane, braids, ponytails, or a mix of them all. These really make your dragon unique, and also gives them personality! The imperial likes to keep his mane braided and out of the way because he’s a firecaster mage, and the tundra keeps her mane tied back because she’s a cook! Hairstyles give the viewer on idea on the dragon’s personality and job/role.

Changing typical features Now we’re getting into the fun stuff. I loves experimenting with these anytime I want to design a dragon. Take a normal aspect of the dragon and make it different in some way. Horns are a good one in particular. While I don’t go into detail on it in this post, there’s a LOT you can do with horns to make them unique. There’s so many different shapes they can take on! This lovely tundra lady has front-facing horns. It’s not just changing shape, but structure too. Instead of the usual stiff fins, this mirror has something more akin to webbing, though it still serves the same purpose. You can have a lot of fun with changing features already present on the dragon.

Using genes Why not take another thing already present on a dragon and use that too? Genes are great because there’s so many, and theres a lot you can do with them. Tertiary genes are the more fun ones to experiment with, but you can still use primary and secondary genes to change a dragon’s appearance beyond just markings/patterns. This ridgeback has the spines gene, which has manifested with a far greater number of spines all over their body. The coatl has the python gene, which has lead to them having a scaled hide instead of soft feathers.

Using apparel This is yet another thing which there is a wide variety of that can make your dragon more unique. Making certain pieces of apparel actual physical parts of their body can totally change their appearance. Exaggerating the aspects of some apparel pieces also does this. If you have a fae with veteran’s scars, why not go that extra mile and make them even more rugged and battle-worn? Or, maybe your skydancer has one of the wolf capes? What if it wasn’t a cape, but their actual face?

Breed changes A dragon that has undergone a breed change could wind up keeping some of the features present in it’s past form! Whether you actually applied a breed change to them or not, giving dragons a few features from other breeds is great fun. A snapper who was once an imperial, with some rather lovely whiskers. A guardian who used to be a mirror, who still has his heat-sensitive eyes, much to his dismay, and far stiffer webbing. Or maybe a coatl turned nocturne, who luckily kept the feathered crest she was so fond of.

Just have fun! Do whatever! Go crazy! Change this, change that. Model their face shape after a real world animal, give them 14 eyes and 5 tongues, and heck, throw in an extra pair of horns! Maybe she has a turtle beak, maybe he’s part demon! If you have an idea, try it out and have fun!

Sincerely, I love making my dragons weird <3