#mod exodrake

[f-nodragonart]

HELLO! I was wondering if I could get some anatomy critique on this dragon concept? The colors are based off a Black-headed grosbeak. I was going to add spikes and stuff, but I figured since it had such a bright orange color it probably wouldn’t have predators and thus a need for spikes. I also really like it without wings too…I just really like its colors a lot and thought wings would ruin everything (haha).

So while I was drawing it I randomly thought, “Hey, why do I always draw my dragon tails sticking out? Wouldn’t it be more comfortable to have it curve toward the ground?” But then I’ve never done that before and now I’m having doubts and…whatever, I’ll just listen to what you have to say. :p

ALRIGHT THIS IS MY FIRST REDLINE FOR THE BLOG, SO PLEASE TAKE THIS WITH A PINCH OF SALT. If I messed something up, please correct me Mod Spiral!

The first thing I notice is the lack of shoulders. Since your dragon has an erect quadrupedal posture, you want to have very strong shoulders. I based the shoulders here predominantly off of cats which have large, very powerful shoulders, but if you want something less pronounced, have a look at dog shoulders!

The curve of the tail is actually great because it looks more comfortable and natural than it just sticking out. However, the tail did come down a bit too far on the butt for a flexible tail configuration, so I moved it up and made it a bit thinner.

The placement of the right (the dragon’s right) legs was off perspective, so i scooched them up a bit. Do try to place far limbs higher than near limbs, as it adds a sense of depth to the image.

Finally, I think your dragon’s eye was placed just a hair too high on the head and was a bit too unrealistically large, so I moved and shrunk it down just a little bit.

The last thing I would recommend, design wise, is to remove the opposable claws on the feet. Birds have those to improve their balance because they are bipedal. A quadruped would not need them at all, and as my redline shows clearly, they would clash with a quadrupedal walk cycle where the dragon would step on its own toes. The opposable toe on the back feet is fine but should be removed on the front legs.

I also thickened the neck up a bit, since it looked a tad too spindly to me

One final tip I have, from a stylistic perspective, is to try tapering your lines.

If you’re using a tablet, pressure settings can automate this. If you are drawing with a mouse, you will need to manually use the eraser tool to snip off edges on your lines. Lineart variations are something extremely difficult to master but will drastically improve the visual appeal of your work.

Now, I do adore the originality of this dragon design. I also love your choice of colors, although, the colors might be nicer if you blended them a bit so they looked less broken up. Other than that though, the color scheme is great: it has a nice blend of visual appeal and believability, being based on a beautiful real life animal. The dragon is also really cute!

-Mod Exodrake

[f-nodragonart]

So if I understand that one post correctly, some people believe that if it has scales, it MUST be a reptile? Well guess what exists? Pangolins. They are mammals with scales, so it definitely wouldn't be out of the question for a mammalian dragon to also have scales.

Exactly! Armadillos are another example of mammals with scales.

-Mod Exodrake

[f-nodragonart]

½ roast my dergens Sorry if I’m spamming by the way! It’s the person who asked the helmet question XD

The rest of the images are broken so I can only comment on the first one sorry! Feel free to resubmit the broken ones as separate submissions though.

Honestly this is really good overall. There’s not a whole lot that needs to be said, except for these little nags:

-the misplaced spike on the wing arm right by the wrist doesn’t make anatomical sense. a bone spur should not be emerging right there since it would have to attach to the arm bone and it would interfere with muscle/tendon connections. I would recommend just a thumb claw instead, and

-the wing palm looks stiff. bat wing palms have the finger bones emerging from the palm in a radial, somewhat overlapping pattern:

this was the biggest issue that killed me while I was trying to learn how to draw bat wings and learning this revolutionized how I draw bat like wings. the palms are not structured like human palms which would be bad for a limb designed for flight.

additionally, the pointer finger should not be the longest. bat wings have a short pointer finger, the middle finger the longest, then the ring and pinky fingers are shorter, similar to human hands, except the lengths of bat wing fingers are selected for to create a certain streamlined shape. having the pointer finger as the longest one would make a more awkward wing shape.

I can’t think of too much else to say, aside from the wing issues the anatomy looks quite good and the style works very well. You have a nice color scheme and a very unique dragon design!

-Mod Exodrake

[f-nodragonart]

what the hell is hangbutt

It’s when the wing membrane is attached too high up on the body. it should at least stretch past the legs, ideally onto a tail, to give a sensible wing surface area and comfortable flight position.

[f-nodragonart]

So I attempted to redo her old ref from 2014. And I tried as much as I could to keep the intended colors she was given and not look too much like Spyro because I’ve been dealing with this issue for 2/3 years and I think it’s enough. Care to share your thoughts on my persona and what I could possibly improve on next time? I think I made a few errors.

I think you’ve done well enough to differentiate her enough from Spyro that she stands as her own design/character. I think the color scheme works very well and she has a nice mix of the classic Spyro style and your own original touch!

Here’s some fairly minor errors I see that could be improved upon:

-The neck looks a bit thin where it connects to the back of her skull

-There’s an implied elbow finger on the wing (otherwise the wing structure looks good, and the stylization looks nice too!)

-the wing appears to lack a chest muscle connection, like it just leads into the abdomen

-the pubic bone looks to be placed too far forward, it shouldn’t be visible from this angle

Those are the errors that I spotted. Perhaps the other mods can weigh in, and possibly add red lines? I promised to stay out of redlining for now since I’m not confident enough with my art skills to do so.

-Mod Exodrake

[f-nodragonart]

I would like to remind you that the limitations regarding eggs and development is hypothetical, not proven. You really shouldn't be trying to pass it off as a studied subject, especially when I haven't seen it anywhere else, and the other person I asked about it, an evolutionary biology grad student, flat out disagreed with it. Hypotheses are fine, but remember you shouldn't present it as proven.

That’s an interesting point to bring up considering pterosaurs laid eggs and had membrane based wings (though it is held by a large pinky finger). I feel like in discussions about wings and flight pterosaurs are left out because, well, they throw a wrench in what we’ve previously established. It’s hard to say at what point do certain traits warrant a different method of birth.

I think I should let other mods chew on this considering it’s been a while since I’ve read about these flying reptiles.

-Mod O

(disclaimer: this is speculation, not something that has been proven) 

I think pterosaur wings are actually the way to go for membranous wings on oviparous dragons. Or Yi Qi’s wings. Both types were membranous, worked for egg-laying creatures, and were a lot simpler (meaning they involved far fewer elongated bones) than bat wings.

Fantasy doesn’t really need to worry about the exact point where egg laying is no longer viable. The thing I’m just personally tired of seeing is these SUPER complex dragons with like 8 fingers on each wing and super mega uber intelligence that are way out of reason. That’s what makes me roll my eyes.

I personally am going to stick to my guns and maintain my opinion that egg laying hexapods would never be viable, but at the very least giving them pterosaur wings and maybe 3 toes on each limb, and sprawling legs instead of erect ones (or at the very least, relatively short legs), would make a more believable oviparous hexapod dragon for me.

-Mod Exodrake