Redeemer of the Lost

For all you Warhammer nerds out there (like me!), here's Astorath, High Chaplain of the Blood Angels and Redeemer of the Lost (I told you this was nerdy).

Forest Dragon

My latest dragon painting. Funny to think it's been a while since I did one. I've been working on this for a bit more than a month (hence the long delay between posts).

The dragon is based loosely on the Forest Dragon from the Warhammmer Fantasy universe. I was a teenager when this piece was first released and I fell in love with it. I've been wanting to do something with it for a long time now, and I finally figured it out. And yes, the big tree is based on Avatar's Hometree.

I thought I'd show you my process. This admittedly ugly painting was the seed of the final piece. This is where I established what I wanted the painting to convey: an immense dragon hanging from a giant tree in a forest lit by moonlight. I also knew I wanted a color scheme dominated by blues and blue greens.

This is the refined pencil sketch. Here I determined a lot of fine detail, such as the vines on the giant tree and the smaller dragons on the lower left to give a sense of scale. Note I also extended the left side of the piece to show a bit more.

And this is the maquette I built. The foliage was created with moss. The wings were torn off a cheap Halloween decoration (oh the advantages of working for Amscan....). Note the lighting here is completely off. I did not use this photo for painting. I just gently backlit the maquette and painted from life. Obviously, I could only do this painting at night. How appropriate.

Well, hopefully this has been an enlightening post. Let me know if you thought so. I would appreciate it. I you think I'm a complete idiot, well, let me know that too. Just be nice and tell me why. Thanks!