Alpha Showdown

After a few days of intensive painting (it's been a LONG time since I've just sat for such longer stretches and done digital art) I have finally finished my art piece that started out as a sketch that I showed you guys a while back. I've done this style of painting before (in a painting called "There is no Love without Pain). It focuses a lot on detail but has fairly subdued, almost cold colors. That makes it a lot simpler for me. Anyway, click the read more to see the whole painting.

I wanted the lighting to be a little like the sequence in Jurassic World where the I-Rex ambushes the ACU. I don't think I pulled it off perfectly, and the entire background and fog are probably not my favorite parts... yeah, definitely not my favorite parts! 

Up at the top of the post you can see an up close shot of Toothless's head. The entire image is actually much too large to post here efficiently. I am pretty sure it won't be full size even if you open it in a new window. But, anyway, I wanted to post a full body shot of just him. I really like how his face turned out, especially the little glowing nostril! This is the second time EVER that I have done a full detailed drawing of him doing the Alpha-glow (technically, I've done it three times), and both other times I found it really tricky. I actually am super happy with it this time... all the way down to the hot glow on his tongue! His eye is also pretty nice looking if you zoom in on it (though nothing compared to what other digital painters do). I also did get the chance to do the mottled patterns on his sides and wings, and I always love when I get the chance to pull that off! He's very pretty... yeah... he's still by far my favorite thing to draw!

Here is an uncles look at the I-Rex's head. Boy, she is FREAKY. Sorry... I think I've kinda developed another phobia (maybe called I-Rexaphobia? Yeah). So, I made her teeth notably nasty (because they always are), and I tried to do some scales on her face. That was tricky, so I don't know how well it turned out. Sorry about the blood if you're squeamish. Carnivores usually do wind up being bloody... Her eye was fun to do. I looked at a couple of references, and I really loved the patterning and color they put into her design. And of course, there's a decent amount of dino drool. When in doubt, add reptile spit!

Here's the last extra shot that I'll post. It's pretty much a full body shot of the I-Rex. I left the shading pretty rough on her body. In a way... it was sloppy of me, but it did add texture. Hopefully it doesn't take away from the painting. It is pretty obvious that I spent most of my time doing her head, but I don't think she turned out too shabby. This is my first time painting her, so for a first try I am very happy that it came out the way it did! Because she is white, I bet she would look really different int different lighting (just like Toothless does). 

So, that's the painting. At first (when I finished the digital line art) I worried that the I-Rex was kinda stealing the show. She looked so cool, and big, and terrifying! I was wondering whether or not Toothless would really look boss enough to make it obvious that it ISN'T obvious who would win. But, once I finally finished painting him, I was so excited by how he came out! He looks (in my opinion) every bit as fierce and boss as she does, so I am very happy with that. After all, I am rooting for him in this scenario. Who knows how it will play out, though... In about thirty second we'll either see a broken, limp form dangling from the dinosaur's jaws, or we'll see smoke clearing as boring bits of I-Rex head fall scattered around the area. Yeah... oops. This line of thought is more graphic that I intended it to be XP.

Challenger sighted: FIGHT!