Another Dragon

[Andrea Weissenseel]

So Dee, you finally got me hooked on 3D

I ran my dragon this afternoon. I have a real hard time to get hands on some nice wood, so I only had one of those breakfast boards. Size of it is 29x21 cm and it took 1 hr 18 min in one pass. The only thing I don't like is the pearl, I used a gradient fill on that one and it didn't come out nice.

Andrea

[Frank Corker]

Turned out really nice. Make the shadows a deeper black and the 3d effect will become even more obvious. 29x21 ...you could always have made it smaller if you were short on wood

[Dee Gallo]

Andrea,

Nice job! I'm glad you decided to go for it!

On the pearl, try adding more points in the radial gradient by clicking on the line between black and white. You can add a bunch of slightly different grays and control how gradual your transition is. Definitely give it a black outline, just 1/2 point is enough to define the outline.

Alternately, you can make circles with no lines and assign each a % of black fill (0, 10, 30, 50, 70, 90) with a black outline around the biggest one.

I also like to move the light spot to the top right or top left a bit, to make it look more natural.

Have you put any oil on the wood yet? I'll bet that stain or oil would really increase the contrast too. I use an airbrush to spray on shellac mixed with pigment and that really evens out the grain and deepens the grain.

What kind of wood is "breakfast board?

I'm working on some dragon drawings myself - this is fun!

cheers, dee

[Andrea Weissenseel]

lol Frank I know but I just decided to go with real plates for breakfast

Dee, I looked it up and the "breakfast board" is a wooden platter I think it is beech wood. I didn't put oil or anything on it yet, this was just a test piece I had handy

I usually dont use the radiant fill at all, but rather work with the contour tool - but you're right about moving the lightspot away from the center.

I'll keep that in mind using shellac on it - but airbrushes, cameras and I dont get along too good

Andrea