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My girl!

I really cannot bring myself to add more to this ref or at least not today.

Goldstone is a Mud/Sky hybrid. She is Very Large and best described as a thick skywing or a lean mudwing.

Goldstone has a very close bond with her father since she has no other family. She travels with Babirusa and helps him gather more stock for their business. She is more standoffish and cold, much less of a salesman than her father. But to those she has come to form friendships with, she can be warm and caring. Goldstone acts arrogant and often takes on difficult tasks. She feels she has to succeed in everything she does and gets frustrated when she fails to reach her own high expectations. She wants to bear everyone else's burdens because she cares for them. She uses her size as an excuse to take on more than she can chew because in her mind, she of all dragons should be big and strong enough to handle it. This mindset is deeply rooted in the fact that her own mother had only conceived her for the material gain Babirusa provided. She feels like she needs to prove her worth because her own mother saw none in her.

Her father, Babirusa, is a Mudwing and a traveling rock hound and salesman. He outlived all of his sibs and took to wandering, feeling lonely and lost. He learned he was very good at unearthing precious stones and minerals and quickly became a popular traveling merchant. He fell in love with a stunning Skywing who he thought also cared for him.

Incarnadine is a Skywing aristocrat from an affluent family. She had an insatiable taste for all that glittered. When she met Babirusa during one of his visits to the skywing kingdom, she saw a perfect opportunity to aquire more treasure. She led Babirusa on and made him belief that she loved him. She even went so far as to have relations with him which produced an egg. Appalled by the idea of a half-blooded offspring and believing that it, and the aforementioned relationship with a mudwing, would tarnish and ruin her reputation, she abandoned the egg and Babirusa. He never saw her again.

Babirusa would go on to name his child Goldstone after his false relationship. Goldstone isn't a real mineral, instead a hand made glass. He felt it fitting. Though mudwings don't typically raise their own offspring, Babirusa felt deeply attached and protective of his egg. Having lost all his siblings, he felt that this was his second chance at having any semblance of a family. He did his best to raise Goldstone by himself. Occasionally, he would make and gift her small pieces of jewelry to express his love.

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oh i just LOVE your style!!!! if you wouldn't mind, could you explain how you go about designing and what your artistic process is with dragons specifically?? I love your lady jewel design the most!!!!!!

Of course, and thank you so much! @aldershadows also asked this question, and I hope I can give you a comprehensive answer, and will be taking this oppurtunity to create a one-and-done design tutorial to answer any similar questions that may come up in the future.

Bear in mind that I'm not a professional, and I'm not looking to dissuade people from following traditional techniques or other advice. This is purely a discussion of MY process, and what I consider to be good/bad design technique.

Where to Start

There are six important conceptual 'principles' I like to consider when in the initial stages of (Re)designing a character: Story, Personality, Aesthetic, Interpretation, and canon/fanon appearance. Fully understanding these principals can help you understand a character, which will make both your life and design better.

Story: What is this character's actual story? What's their lore? Where do they start, and where do they end up - and most importantly, where does your design fit into that timeline? When I design characters, I try to be clear on exactly what part of their journey they are on. (Ex: blaze and the coat -> sandwing succession war)

Personality: This one is pretty easy - what is your character like, and how do they present themselves to the outside world? When you make a character and show them to the world, everything in the canvas is interpreted by the audience: even down to simple details like posture or background. Treat it like an opportunity to show off as much of your character's personality as you can.

Aesthetic: Aesthetic plays the most important role of all: it's job is to make sure your design is cohesive. It can be a common theme, pattern, color pallet or shape - as long as it reoccurs throughout a design, it's good. Use aesthetics to amplify the other principals, and figure out how to make it *look* nice as a secondary goal.

Interpretation: This one is specific to redesigns, but could also be applied to OCs - I like to consider my personal interpretation of a character: the media I see, the opinion I have... Multi-animator projects, other fanart pieces and personal quirks make up my interpretation of most WoF characters. You don't always need to incorporate your interpretation, but it's good to have in mind.

Canon/Fanon appearances: If you want to design and OC, ignore this. If you're redesigning an existing character, it's useful to consider how your audience views them - for example, most of us collectively agree on a few key design aspects of most characters. That doesn't mean you have to follow those conventions, but keep in mind that they may make your character more or less recognizable. You can also call on the other principles of design to make up for any leap-of-faith redesign choices you make.

Narrow It Down

Now that you're thinking, it's time to narrow those ideas down! Be aware that sometimes, less is more: you might have a ton of cool concepts, but your design will look BAD if you can't stay cohesive. The number of different ideas that can co-exist in one design varies a lot by preference and similarity, so be evaluative when doing this. If you follow my blog, you might notice I tend to walk the line between detailed, cohesive design and overwhelming animator repellent. To combat this, I try to step back often and consider if I've gone too far.

At this stage, it's good to make notes or small sketches - anything to get your ideas down.

Experiment

Test your ideas out with more sketches - alter, add, subtract... whatever your heart desires. Experimentation is the best way to discover your specific design tendencies, as well as breaking new ground and stepping out of your comfort zone. The more you experiment, the quicker you'll improve. This is usually the point where I start testing out different patterns, since those are the main highlight of most of my redesigns. Pertaining to dragons, it's always a good idea to test out different shapes - especially wings, spikes, arms and tails, which are generally the most customizable features of a character. Looking to other artists for advice/inspiration is also a great tactic, but be sure to follow the 80/20 rule of originality within your designs!

Judge yourself (not literally)

Evaluating your designs as you make them is always a great idea, but sometimes you need multiple tests/sketches in order to know what you REALLY want. Compare your experiments - what do you like about them? What do you dislike? Which are more faithful to the character, and which ones confuse you? understanding the flaws in your design can help you to overcome even the biggest challenges.

I've used Kinkajou to show how important evaluation is: despite being my favorite character, she has proved exceedingly hard to redesign (to my satisfaction,) even with multiple attempts from this year and the last. She might not even be released by the time this post airs - but with the power of critical thinking and good evaluation, her design has gradually improved over my last few attempts.

Stay on your toes

Did you think you were done? Did you think it was over? NO. Life doesn't get easier just because you made it past the idea stage. When you have your final thoughts and want to get chugging with your reference page/illustration, make sure to stay alert! Keep evaluating, keep experimenting, and make sure to stay mindful of what you do! One of the more common issues I have is that I turn my brain off while I draw, and then slowly my designs drift further and further away from the idea I actually wanted to put down. Asking yourself questions along the way can help to sharpen your design, and train your mind to think more artistically.

It's always good to take a once-over of your final product: check for errors you might have made, and think about whether or not your design still looks good. Does it show personality? Is it consistent?

If you do find that your end product isn't what you really imagined, don't despair - there are plenty of lazy tricks you (And I) can pull to string things back together again. Using gradient maps is a great way to fix your colors, and simple filters like 'overlay' (procreate) can help to neutralize your pallet. My favorite trick is to use the 'curves' tool (procreate) to make certain colors darker, in the case that I feel my design doesn't use a wide enough range of light and dark shades. I also like to turn saturation down if I think there's a color problem, to see if it's actually my pallet or if I'm using too many colors with the same tone.

Keep Going

My design strategy relies on confidence. You won't be able to improve if you doubt that you can! So, my most important piece of advice is to keep going, no matter how fast or slow you seem to make progress. My second most important piece of advice is not to compare yourself to other artists - focusing on their progress is neglecting your own.

To everyone who made it this far, thank you so much! Posting here truly is an amazing experience and I adore you guys. Sorry if this got a little out of hand. I hope this was helpful to you and anyone else with the same question, as well as being a useful resource to other artists in the future! As always, my askbox is open to any and all questions + requests for redesigns!

( ´ ω ` )ノﾞ

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I rly wanna finish Goldstone but my wrist be hurting

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Made soup and Knishes for dinnerrrr

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This reminds me of how I imagined the mechanical hound from Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451. So cool

long friend

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Yall sleepin on my Sea Witch design. They are so dear to me. Such derpy stupid flying eels.

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I call them Sea Witches

I made this species back in college. I mashed up a billion (felt like it) different creatures and popped out a pretty generic dragon looking thing. But I still love the concept.

They live on coastal cliffsides and have long talons to help cling to rocks. Their legs are pretty stubby and not good for traversing land. Their wings and hood are meant to help them glide and hover on coastal winds while they scout the waters for food on high. When they spot suitable prey, they fold their wings tightly to their body, tuck their hood in, and dive into the water like a dart. Their narrow snout helps them pierce the water's surface. While underwater, they do not use their wings. Instead, they use their flat paddle-like tail to propel themselves and use their hood to change directions and 'steer'. Their skin is motled and looks very similar to an eel's, rubbery and tough. And they are usually about shoulder height to an average human.

Despite being more equipped for aquatic living, aside from breathing air, they do nest on land. They spend a pretty even amount of time on both land and in the water. They are more vulnerable on land due to how awkward it is for them to scrabble around, but if they feel particularly threatened, they can always fly off.

Sea Witches get their name from their ability to 'charm' fishermen. The skin under their hood can produce some bioluminescents as well as change colors in a rapid fashion. They use this to stun predators or potentially even prey. Sometimes, the little fleshy 'antenna' on the ends of their hood can also produce this same glow, but it isn't common. This strobing effect rarely stuns humans but it can be fascinating to watch or even strike a sense of awe or curiosity. Hence, the Sea Witch's charm. They pose little threat to humans and are likely to take off if approached, but some Sea Witches have been known to be a bit more... disagreeable.

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Base belongs to cloudymaws. I only made minor changes to the base aside from accessories. It is otherwise exactly as cloudymaws made it.

I have a concept for a WoF OC that I named Goldstone. She's a Mud/Sky hybrid. I'm feeling kinda lazy so I used these bases to quickly make up what I felt her parents would have looked like.

Babirusa is the only survivor of his troupe and has no living sibs. Feeling alone and lost without his siblings he took to wandering. In his travels he learned he was really good at finding valuable gems and minerals, and became a rock hound. He would visit any kingdoms that allowed him in to peddle his wares. I like to think the Skywings would adore all the shiny things he sold and that he would have been a somewhat popular traveling vendor there. And that is where he would meet Incarnadine.

Incarnadine is very arrogant and self-centered. She is upper class and belongs to an affluent family. She took a liking to Babirusa only because she saw him as a way to obtain treasures and beautiful trinkets. Eventually, she laid a blood-red egg with golden speckles. She left the egg with Babirusa and abandoned them both without ever looking back. She felt that her reputation and that of her family's would be forever tarnished if anyone found out she had been with a dragon from another tribe, even if it was solely for material gain. Perhaps a small part of her had feelings after all since she did not destroy their egg to hide it's very existence.

Babirusa named their dragonet Goldstone. In his heartbreak, he gave her a name that reflected the relationship she was born from. Goldstone is not an actual gemstone, it is a man-made glass. In a sense, he named her after an inauthentic love. Not a real gemstone, not a skywing nor a mudwing, but something else entirely. Though, even if it is Glass, it sparkles all the same.

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Opening title card and environment for my personal project S'mores. My animation will be in adventure time style so I thought it would be fun to have a little Jake cameo. But I'll probably remove it for the final.

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I can't remember who I purchased this sona from, it's probably on my toyhouse. But I've been experimenting with how I want them to look. They're a dragon/goat kind of hybrid in my mind. I used to call them Pączki, but I settled on calling them Ghouls after my own handle.

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When my brother was little my mom had to call poison control for him twice. This makes me think either doof or his daughter have a habit of eating things they shouldn't.

had to go back and give this a second look. no notes 10/10

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This ref keeps giving me a coniption fit

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I think my favorite thing to do is highlights and shadows.

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My first little ref sheet. Actually made this one a while ago but might as well post

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Nekrogoblikon? I love them （´-`） I like drawing their scrungly fingers and big ears

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Who was gonna tell me about being Cove in Fortuna? I always wondered where their brains were.

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