So many ideas and possibilities, the fear of choosing the boring one...
Anyhow, I started by choosing the theme of the "rider" and made a list of my 10 favorites "riders" in the fan-dome (I also wanted to do some fan art, which I never did yet). So I had a category "on horse", one "on wolf/bear", obviously one "on dragon", and "others". Cut that list to a "top 3 selection" (which was 1- Link on Epona (Zelda/"on horse), 2- Princess Mononoke (Ghibli movie/"on wolf") and 3- no other than Daenerys Targaryen (Mother of dragons, riding drogon). I took 2 whole days getting to that point, with a pretty nice collection of images refs from the internet...
I ended up choosing "Mother of Dragon", but then again, when I started sketching, I had it right in my face: Dragons are huge, right? (daaaahhhh!), but when it comes to the "rider" theme, well, the goal being to capture in image the "rider WITH the trusty and loyal steed" right? With a dragon, there's 3-4 choices: either you put the whole dragon in the picture, but then the rider is small... or you frame the rider, but you can't fit the whole giant beast... or you resize the dragon to be smaller, like the size of a horse (which they did in the movies « How to train your dragon 1-2 », makes sense!)... Or the rider is not on the beast... which is a shame.
I did some sketches anyway, because I didn't want to abandon that easily... (all based on photo refs)
Sketch 1:
Jamie rushing to kill Daenerys, who's down to remove a lance from the chess of Drogon. Good drama, but I'm not convinced.... The "rider" is so little on this frame, we see better "her I-wanna-be killer"...
Sketch 2:
Drogon on the top of a hill, with a crowd below. The image is interessing when you know the scene, but like this, the "rider"... well, you don't even know which on it is... And the framing (when the camera is not moving like in a movie) is kinda boring...
Sketch 3:
Drogon burning stuff on the battlefield... I'm not even sure there's a "rider" on this scene (I can add one... but still, the framing is, again, pretty boring, with all the straight lines, like in a stage play... Not convinced...
Sketch 4:
Drogon burning war supplies of the ennemi. Same remarks, thought the action and drama are great, the framing remains "linear" and boring (yes, I can change it... but there's still the "rider" being so small in the frame (if I add her) that bothers me... Let's keep going...
Sketch 5:
Drogon above the Dothraki army... A little better, not yet satisfied...
Sketch 6:
Daenerys and her baby dragons. Not riding yet, but we see her better, which I like better... But still a pretty "stage play" framing...
Sketch 7:
Daenerys riding Drogon, on the battlefield. Better, good drama and action. Boring framing again. Ok, what's up with the photo director of this movie?? Never notice how linear so many frames are in that awesome series... (There's SOOO many other things to look at anyway...) :P
Sketch 8:
Daenerys with Drogon (the biggest and her favorite dragon). A little better... but still, I don't know.
I do know I can totally improvise a better framing and all, but something is wrong. All wrong, and I'm not sure what, I can't explain what is it.
At this point, I got pretty exasperate, desperate. Felt like 3 days to the garbage, and started to be pretty stressed out. Saturday evening and "nothing" to show that satisfy myself. Start to chat with friend from the class, asking if I was the only one "stressed" about this (and they all (all but one) said "yes, I'm stressed too"...
At this point, I got pretty exasperate, desperate. Felt like 3 days to the garbage, and started to be pretty stressed out. Saturday evening and "nothing" to show that satisfy myself. Start to chat with friend from the class, asking if I was the only one "stressed" about this (and they all (all but one) said "yes, I'm stressed too"...
I leave my computer, going to eat (late)... and after like 10 steps away from my computer, I get stroke with the idea, BAM! Sorry Mother of Dragons, you are still awesome and my favorite, I might paint you later, but not today!
Change of plan. Move on to "Zelda, Breath of the Wild", to do Link character riding the white royal horse... WITH a f@%&ing dragon in the sky, which is one of the best experience in BOTW, ahaha! :P Never eaten... I went back for more image refs of the where about of each three dragons.
Change of plan. Move on to "Zelda, Breath of the Wild", to do Link character riding the white royal horse... WITH a f@%&ing dragon in the sky, which is one of the best experience in BOTW, ahaha! :P Never eaten... I went back for more image refs of the where about of each three dragons.
Sketch 9:
Link on the top of the snowy mountain where he just saved Naydra, the dragon/deity of frost from Ganon's corruption (an AWESOME and very emotional moment in the game)... But there's no horse, no rider... (horses can't get in that mountain),so I disqualify this image.
Sketch 10:
Link on horse, on the broken bridge of Hylia Lake, with Farosh, dragon/deity of lightning flying above. This is a very boring framing, I know, but I needed to draw this first, like the base of the narrative I'm looking for. I did a couple more of these... but I flushed them out by mistake... I was so despaired... v_v
My boyfriend was around at this point and said, as I was drawing « It's obvious that horses are sooooo easy for you to draw; you just drew one so fast and it looks so good! » which at this point, I was so disappointed with myself so far, it kinda reminded me « I CAN do this! » So, I'm NOT going to pick this image, but it made all the rest possible :P And it started to feel "good" and "right"! I'm on the right path!
Sketch 11:
Link on a horse, on Tanbantha super-broken great bridge, with Dinraal, dragon/deity of fire, flying under... Ok, enough with the boring framing: let's get in perspective now!
Sketch 12:
Link on a horse, on Tanbantha super-broken great bridge, with Dinraal, dragon/deity of fire, flying under... Ok, now, we're in the conversation. Now, we start talking!! ^_^
Sketch 13:
Let's revisit Link on horse, on the broken bridge of Hylia Lake, in perspective, with Farosh, dragon/deity of lightning flying above.
Link on a horse, on Tanbantha super-broken great bridge, with Dinraal, dragon/deity of fire, flying under... Close-up and the horse frighten (dah! poor thing!)
This is NOT in the game, the dragons/deity never really interact with the "mortals" (else that the one time framed on sketch 9) and this one always remains UNDER the bridge... One in "landscape":
Sketch 15:
Same, on a "portrait" format.
Though the "portrait" format is said to be more dynamic, I do prefer the one in landscape... :P
Time to sleep...
Next day, I took my favorite 3 and did the tons sketches. I know the assignment was to do more than one for 1 sketch, but since the concept art for Zelda's visual already exists, I kinda... follow what have already been conceptualized (which is what "fan art" is all about, isn't not?)
Sketch 12 retake:
Link on a horse, on Tanbantha super-broken great bridge, with Dinraal, dragon/deity of fire, flying under...
I like the angle, but it's a shame that Link riding the horse is so small on the frame... This bridge bothers me, cuz it... kinda holds on not much... The structure is pretty fictional/unreal... But Dinraal is my favorite dragon in Zelda BOTW ^_^
Sketch 13 retake:
Let's revisit Link on horse, on the broken bridge of Hylia Lake, in perspective, with Farosh, dragon/deity of lightning flying above.
With this angle, I could try to have a good framing on Link riding, and the dragon very close to us.
The bridge of Hylia is a very interesting piece of architecture/ruin... but I like Farosh a little less than Dinraal :P
Link on a horse, on Tanbantha super-broken great bridge, with Dinraal, dragon/deity of fire, flying under... Close-up and the horse frighten.
Though this picture can't happen in the game (it would be blasphemy to do this for the fandom), it remains the best framing, I believe (could rework for sure), because we're closer to the rider, the drama/action of the dragon is better... I just don't like this damn bridge! Nothing perfect in this world, oh well...
I'm still not sure which one to pick between the three... Probably that more sketching would be needed. When I look back of the progression of each sketches, they are ruffly ok, but I'm not convinced yet on the framing, the composition... All are pretty "balanced" but also rather "centered" (I have fallen on the illusion that because the rider is placed on the 2/3 of the bridges, the rule of third was respected, but no, the rider is centered every time) Grrrrr!
My favorite at this moment, is Sketch 12, with the dragon UNDER, BUT, it would need some re-sketching :( Get closer to the rider like #13 & 14, maybe a higher point-of-view (a kinda "bird's view"), put the dragon lower (less details, because he'll be getting into the atmospheric perspective (the bridge is very high above a gorge), to keep the story on the character, the rider, who's having the experience of meeting the deity of fire while crossing a shaky broken bridge (of wood!)
Ok, I'm game... Let's do one last sketch for what I have left of "free" time...
Sketch 16:
A retake of #12 + 15, correcting some framing/composition problems. Two journey (the rider and the dragon), and at this moment, their path crosses each other. Voilà! :)
... I can now really say that I did my best about this ^_^ At this point, I think I would need some coaching / advice from Mr Vinh before I can push this any further!! ^_^
After 4 days searching for dragon images and drawing dragons, I have two girls playing dragons, crafting dragons, watching dragon movies and asking me to call them "my little dragon". Dragons are in the air! :P
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