#*o_ I'll come running to you _o*

[parcy-anda-but-with-actual-posts]

Smaugust Week 1 Smaugust Week 2 Smaugust Week 3: You are here! Smaugust Week 4

Day 15: Shatter — I'm not gonna lie... creatively, I got caught slacking on this one. I was not super-inspired today (too much going on), however, I didn't want to fall behind again. I thought about things that are brittle, and while a piñata briefly started to materialize on this canvas, glass and specifically volcanic glass evolved ultimately. I abandoned the piñata in favor of a dragon that looked like it was a mass of shards molded back together in a rather unwieldy shape (but did not put the time into polishing). ^^;

Day 16/17: Kite & Mirage — Slight redemption here, but mostly just for cuteness points - I did a scene and took a little more time on the concept (not that it's any more original, just 15% more thought through and worked on); have a parent and its tadpole of a windsock dragon, such rays of sunshine they are, soaring through tracks of clouds on a mild, sunny afternoon. =v=; I wanted a hemolymph-like flesh/blood color, but derped on whether it was purplish or bluish... we'll see - I think I need to lay off the purple for a bit, though!

Day 18: Gemstone — Some days, I'm psyched about a subject, and make something that both makes me smile and [with a little luck] makes others smile, too. Other days, I hide from it in Minecraft until the last minute, and try to salvage, but run into stubborn issues I'm not ready to grow past yet. I may come back and finish this at some point, but for prompt scheduling, I'm calling this box checked and moving onto the next one. Questionably-Posed/Foreshortened, lying down, overly-human-torso'd, Don-Bluth-y-Faced dragon did not feel like leaving, so I just worked around it. ^^'

I wanted to make a dragon eating gemstones, and it became a dragon eating out of frustration because his human friend said something hurtful while they were pretending to fight. X'D (CONTEXT: this dragon is all roughed up from a lifetime of harassment, and contrary to appearance breathes no fire and guards no hoard; aforementioned human bonded with him and helped fake his death so other humans would leave him alone. Nothing about this was original, but it's a trope I've never gotten to indulge in personally, so there)

Dragon: Not now, I'm eating my feelings. Human: I said I was sorry — and you're eating precious gems!

Post-Submission-Nitpicks I'm acknowledging, but not fixing any time soon include the fact that his torso is not that thick front-to-back, but I left it instead of lowering the shoulders, head and hand holding it, because past-me only thought of moving shoulders down, and refused to bury those tattered wing bases.

Day 19: Belly Rub — I got a little farther today, but fell into the same fake angst trap as yesterday: human is offering comforting belly rubs, because they have no idea what else to do when a dragon has such a bad tummy-ache that's it making the poor creature sick. ;w;

Kept the human a silhouette because, well, this isn't about them. It's Smaugust. X'D But scenes/scenarios are just easier for me to work with, I think. Do with this what you will - maybe it's sick and the inflammation is secondary - maybe it's an infection, or maybe it's what mythologically inspired sea horses. ¯\_o^o_/¯

Day 20+21: Celestial + Insect — Dadgummit, I did it again and had to combine. But this calendar week got off to a rocky start and hopefully I'll find my second wind in time for the week four post for Smaugust. >v<; In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this bit of self-indulgent simplicity. It's a beetle-like blimp of a draconic cosmic creature that packs stellar bodies until they shine, it's dark underside glittering with stardust and its works illuminating the edges of its scute-y limbs and carapace.

(In hindsight, I could have given the different stars different temp-colors, some redder or bluer, etc., but I did want to keep this simple for a variety of reasons.)