A dragon in Photoshop

A dragon in Photoshop

I play Dungeons & Dragons. I admit it. I love it. Besides; it was my love of games and my interaction with the game’s inventor (Gary Gygax, RIP old bear), whom I was proud to call a friend for a while, that made me go into multi-media.

This week (and the week before, and the week before…) my group couldn’t get together. So, instead I played with Photoshop.

The result is rather D&D-ish… but I like it.

This tutorial presumes you know your way around Photoshop a bit. To keep it short, I’m skipping stuff like “click here and then click there”, but most of it is pretty self-explanatory.

You will also need the “Bob Ross” brush set, which you can get here. (registration required)

This tutorial assumes you use a drawing tablet. WACOM does the best ones, but I use a cheapo Trust tablet I bought on sale for about $ 20,- and it performs just fine.

OK, let’s get started.

A dragon.

“Remember, if you find yourself in the presence of a gnome and a dragon, you do not have to outrun the dragon. You only have to outrun the gnome.” -unknown-

First, set up your canvas. I generally go with something like 3000×3000 pixels at 600 DpI. Excessive? No, printers want 300 DpI and you want to work at least at twice the size of the end result.

To start with, set up the basic shape of the dragon.

Then in a new layer, scetch the actual dragon. All this is going to be thrown away so feel free to draw lines that are obscured by the subject, if it helps you with placement.

In a new layer, select the “liner” brush and set up the basic shape of the dragon. Pick a color that is a darker version of the predominant color of your dragon. (I changed my mind about colour later on.)

With a hard mechanical brush, start filling your basic shapes, pick a dark base colour.
Put each colour in its own layer.

CTRL-click the layer to select a colour shape, and start to add progressively finer detail, adding new layers as needed.

Scales

The scales were done using the “Stained glass” filter. I added a new layer and painted blotches of skin bright red. Then I applied the filter, and repeated, changing the size of the cells each time. After all, the scales in the nose needen’t be as big as the ones on the back. Avoid doing the entire dragon. This won’t look good, trust me.

Use the scaley bits as highlights, so place them where light will shine. Be playful, let the light play around on your majestic, shiney, dragon. You are not drawing a house, you are drawing a living thing. Playful lighting suggests life and movement.

The helping dark…

(Yes, I read “Thud” by Terry Pratchett) Painters praised for their use of light, such as Rembrandt, actually paid at least as much attention to the dark as to the light. The dark is what sets the light apart. We are going to bring both alive, and we are going to do so using a very simple trick; ctrl-click your dragon layer, and create a new layer. Within your selection put a gradient from a vibrant purple to deep black.

This is after blend mode applied, it should look bright / deep black at first

Choose blend mode “Linear burn”. Our dragon is starting to look quite menacing, no?

But we are going to keep going. Pick the “Marmer” brush and set your background colour to bright red, and your foreground to black. Start filling the dragon. Experiment with switching colours around and several tints of red. It’s your dragon. (I’m not going to say “Happy” because this dragon looks rather vexed, to say the least.)

The horns I did in a simmilar way, then I used the smudge brush preset and the smudge brush to add the texturing.

The skin layers as I had them when I was done:

Marmer brush red / black

Marmer brush, darkening the shadows

Highlights (scaled using Stained Glass filter)

More scales, different size

Once you are happy with your dragon’s skin, use the smudge tool and smudge brush preset to smoothe it all out a bit.

Smoothed out and dimmed a bit

Finally, use a very soft brush (something like 20% flow and 30% opacity) to add the orange highlights. First do a soft, broad, patch, then add a slightly sharper line with a smaller, a little harder, brush on top. Smoothe the whole with the smudge tool. Tip: Always smudge in the direction of your strokes, and put your strokes in the “direction” your subject dictates. So, if a head is round, use circle motions, if a neck curves, curve your strokes along.

Orange highlights

Finally, (really, this time) add shadows by using the color burn tool. Any lines you painted over, and you think you need (Like where the beak hovers over the neck) draw in with colour burn and a thin preset, wider shadows use less intensity and a wider brush.

To finish off (I lied), enlarge and inspect all your edges, smoothing them out where needed. There’s bound to be little bits you missed.

Some dark black for a background, and we are done. (for real this time)

Happy dragon-building!