Final Paintings

1. 2 Character paintings
2. 2 Environment paintings
3. 1 Mixture of character and environment painting

1. Dragon no.1

2. Dragon no.2

3. Environment 'Dragon Lair' no.1

4. Environment 'Castle' no.2

5. Mixture painting

Compositional Painting

I loved/enjoyed painting this piece, one of my favorite so far. This painting has some of unique proportional settings and it sends very euphoric, mellow feeling. I didn't realized that this piece had little bit of similarity or similar vibe from 'The Lord Of The Rings' until when I did the concept and started painting this piece, maybe its because of this intense light brightening up the entire space.

Later on, I have looked up some references from 'The lord of the rings sketchbook: Portfolio' by Alan Lee, very fascinating indeed and was an immense help for this piece.

First, getting the concept work done.

Now, put some colours into it to see what kind of vibe it's going to emit.

Freshening it up

Then voila! putting some heavy contrast does give this painting even more chill to it.

Since this piece is going to be a compositional painting, its obviously essential to put character as well to match up with the environment. So this picture shows where I will paint the character and hope it fits well with the environment.

Progression and progression, the character's shape may have been done, but it needs more painting to do.

With numerous amount of tries, it got to this stage.

Plus, boat is just a bonus, maybe by putting a boat, there will be another perspective view which the boat goes towards to the sunlight.

Dragon 2

After the first try of painting dragon (Dragon 1), it might be a little ambitious but its always a good try for a higher setting, dragon with multiple heads (in my personal opinion, it is always a great idea to start a painting with alot of things to do, even though its obviously difficult to complete it, it will enhance the ability to paint and getting the idea of perspective view as you go along the painting.)

First of all, as I always say about the painting, the position of the dragon is acceptable. Its time to start painting up more!

Its getting there, with some textures on the rock and detailing up the dragon. But somehow, the dragon's figure itself, it isn't just right. Something had to be fixed.

(Another painting here to show the difference and why i needed to adjust the painting and where it needed to be changed)

 1. Where is the another wing?
 2. The middle head might be too small compare to the other heads
 3. Possibly to put more juiciness

Final version of the painting (maybe in the near future, I will be putting more details and higher contrast to actually pop out the dragon even further stage)

Dragon 1

First of all, this character was in a bit of a distorted position to begin with, the position of the bod may fit but the head of the dragon is just completely off the scale. However, this is the time for me to step up and start fixing this dragon.

Finally, the dragon in the below seems to fit the dragon in a better position. A lot better.

Since this dragon is in the right positon (or in the position where I think the dragon fits the best), now its time to start detailing up this dragon.

Detailing is still in the progress but it will be much nicer to put some contrast and actual lighting in the painting.

and yes, with few tries and changes, this character finally looks alot more 3D and actually stands out

Just adding few more adjustment

Environment 2

This concept work of environmental piece was rather fascinating to begin with due to its powerful scene its showing thus I started working on this piece, even though in the concept work, the colour I've put it in was just didn't match up.

Concept piece.

Beginning to form a solid piece by putting more details and adding different colours. At this stage, texturing isn't necessary compare to getting the position/perspective view of the piece.

This was just an experiment how the painting could turn out. Quite liking the peculiar textures on the building/castle and the sunlight in the background.

Final version of the painting. I had to remove the tree on the top left by listening other artists opinion that it needs to be removed (it just didn't fit the painting and doesn't show the castle as a main part, more like tree + castle, giving people confusion whether they should concentrate on castle more or including the tree as well).

Also, environment painting I did before, 'Dragon Lair', one of the great thing I have learned was the adjustment of lighting. By putting sunlight on top right, it suddenly gave life of this painting dramatically compare to the sprints of this painting I did earlier.

Environment 1

Another concept work which I personally chose to work even further to give more dynamic feeling to it. Also, it has been a while since I have painted environmental piece (last semester, I was concentrating about designing characters rather than environment).

First of all, just a quick black and white style of painting shows how this piece will turn out, what kind of colour would suit the best. Anyway, theme I choose for this was dragon lair, hoping putting huge dragon head would represent the entrance towards to the dragon.

Now, I have skipped quite a bit but it shows a lot more by putting colour, mainly focusing on blue and dark navy blue/dark grey and putting bit of texture is a bonus to give more compelling sense. Also, by turning the painting horizontally, painting seems to be different (another trick to see if the painting shows the right colour [where the light hits the object, it should be lighter which means the other side will be darker])

Adding bit more textures and colour but somehow, something is missing, something important. Maybe its the dragon head is a bit too flat (not 3D looking enough).

Just an experiment by putting actual dragon behind the environment.

Completely changing the position of the painting (as I have said before, the dragon head in top right was just didn't look powerful enough.) Maybe the dragon head wasn't in the right position and that lair was suppose to be the main part of this painting and by changing it like this, its more impressive and fearful. Now, all it needs it few more changes in the background and solid texturing.

In these 3 pieces of painting, top 2 are the progression by adding more textures and putting light and adjusting the layer to make it look more natural. The last piece is the final version of this painting and finally, it seems that the dragon head/lair is at the stage where its fearsome and the it has the right amount of textures to give dynamic feeling of the entire painting.

Concept Environment paintings 5

Again, going for different theme but this time, a painting with bit more sci-fi and fantasy was what I had in my mind and just gave it a shot. Turns out the concept itself wasn't so bad and just kept continuing with it.

It had a good starting point - perspective view was on set (view from mid-bottom rock going towards to the castle) and how the castle standout to give more palpable feeling to it.

Feedback

When I have received my feedback from tutors, it seemed there were a lot of mistakes which I needed to change.
 First of all, there weren't much progress with character at that time which I couldn't present it to tutors except form the painting for the mixture of character and environment. The colour was in the right (maybe a little bit more dynamic colour and lighting would put more life into it) place but maybe the proportion of the dragon wasn't in the right place.
 Secondly, I started with environment paintings and one of the concept I was working on was rather unique and wanted to carry along. That painting is 'Dragon Lair', highly focused on using blue and dark/grey/white colour. However, the composition of the painting was rather odd, as if the head of the dragon is not the centre point when it should be the main focus of the painting. It needed to change dramatically.

Concept Environment paintings 4

Another concept which I genuinely enjoyed painting and had a potential of turning into one of my grand piece but something was off balance in this painting.

Also, trying to go for Japanese style of painting might have been useful, especially the painting which I have used it as a main idea, 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' painted by Katsushika Hokusai, was a significant help but maybe its because of these intense white wave textures and the colour of the sea was upsetting the whole image itself.

Concept Environment paintings 3

One of my favorite concept design I did. It fit the concept of the 'dragon' and still gave a bit of a chill while drawing this piece.

Mountain, a lonely road towards to a dragon lair.
To give even more vibe, going with blue/sky-blue/dark grey colour would suit perfectly with the theme.

Concept Environment paintings 2

Moving on from concept 1, I thought doing different and dynamic types of painting might be required to see all kinds of potentials for the painting i will do later on. (messy style, modern art style, abstract style etc)

Different colour theme in each one of them with different perspective views. (even though the middle one is just completely off) It was a great sprint of paintings but little I have gained from these experiments.

Concept Environment paintings 1

There are some paintings which I did with sheer joy but there are some even when I try to think of a concept painting and give it a go, it turns out to be a mess (perspective view isn't right, the environment and the character doesn't match up or it's hard to tell what this painting represent) so having few practices or doing some concept before is what I did.

First of all, I had to give it a shot and do go for futuristic type of painting.

Personally, I enjoyed doing a mech-character but except the colour choices for the sky, the environment just didn't match up with the character at all. Also, its hard to tell due to its off perspective view.

Dragon concept 5

Even though drawing objects in great detail is necessary to have an outstanding painting later on, first of all, artist need to decide what pose their character will make is essential thus I have started drawing dragons with the pose I have thought of which I might use it later on as references.