Every year, during August, I do my best to participate in a drawing challenge called Smaugust. For those who are not familiar, this is a combination of Smaug, a dragon from Lord of the Rings, and August. The object of the challenge is to draw a dragon every day for 31 days throughout the month of August.
Sometimes, there is a drawing prompt to go along with it, but this year I won't be following any particular prompt. However, to make the challenge more interesting, I am making a point of experimenting with new brushes, painting or drawing techniques, or new styles. After all, these drawing challenges are meant as a way to grow as an artist. As there is no client with expectations at the end, I am free to try whatever I desire.
I thought it would be nice to not only post the artwork on social media as I finish it, but also give some background about my thought process for each piece. Of course, you are free to simply enjoy the gallery of art, but I hope that you will enjoy the delve into my mind as well.
The first piece was a return to the simplicity of black and white. I work with color so often these days, that I thought getting rid of it entirely would bring me back to the early days of pencil drawings. A headshot of a dragon is also a favorite of mine to start Smaugust off with, so I just went with it. Behold, a simple black and white bust of a dragon.
In a return to color once more, I decided to try playing with the line color and layer settings. I had never drawn cherry blossoms and it seemed like a nice subject for the summer, so here is a dragon with cherry blossoms falling onto their nose. Perhaps I could have pushed the line color a bit more, but I still don't feel entirely comfortable with the constrast it provides. I will definitely need to revisist this idea in the future.
This chunky dragon was an experiment into drawing water. In this particular case, it was shallow, mostly clear, and still water. The reflections and the refracting of light in water is a difficult subject and I could have pushed it further. However, I think it came out fine for a first try. The background otherwise was more of an afterthought and can be seen in the lack of detail. Perhaps I should try an ocean scene in the future.
All dragons come from dragon eggs, so why not go back to the egg itself? In this simple painting, I mixed clean lines with textured brushes. I find that I don't use enough texture in a lot of my paintings, so I need to experiment with more brushes. The sharp lines and harsh texture don't really mix well in my opinion, so I may separate those in the future, but I did like the textured brushes I was using.
Monochromatic pieces are difficult. They require you to work only with value to make a convincing piece. I can't remember the last time I restricted myself to only one color, so this was an interesting challenge. I also chose a lopsided closeup, something I wouldn't normally draw in order to practice something a little more dynamic for a face composition. Overall, I really like this piece, and may reuse the composition again in the future after some refinement.
Another experiment with line color, this time I was leaning in the direction of low contrast, brighter lines. I still don't have the hang of it, but it did turn into a cute emblem style piece. Using a shape cutout is something I don't often do and is a fun way to draw attention to the piece while providing a very concrete compositional shape. Admittedly, I went out of the shape cutout for the stars, but they are very minimal. It made me think of Sonic for some reason.
I usually reserve lineless styles for a more painterly style, but I wanted to try something less painterly and more shape oriented. I formed out the solid shapes in flat colors, and then shaded them in. Lines were only used for the sketch, but the final result is lineless. Spending less time on defining the shapes doesn't appear to have worked well. Many of the edges are not as precise as I'd like the to be. However, I really enjoyed trying the get the effect of a wet tongue on the "camera" lens. this was a fun pose and I will need to attempt it again in the futute.
I hope that this walk through the pieces I've done so far has been illuminating, and perhaps even inspire others to join in the Smaugust tradition. You don't have to be an artist to join and if you are, it's a great opportunity to grow. I look forward to seeing what kind of pieces all of you will create. Don't be afraid to share any artwork on the Discord channel, in the art-share channel. Critiques are only given if requested. Perhaps I will create a prompt out of the challenges I try to take on this year for everyone to try next year or to follow along.
Either way, thanks for joining me on this journey, and I'll be back next week with the next batch of dragon drawings.
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