No Slayin' Just Playin'
The idea behind this is that the English Saint, St. George, once slayed a Dragon, that's why he's England's Saint. But the Dragon of the story is just as famous as George (of course, no one knows who this unfortunate Dragon was, or why he was slain, or even if he was and the whole thing wasn't some elaborate lie. I like to think that if there was a Dragon and it was killed, that it was because he laid down his life for some reason, like in Dragon Heart). This image wouldn't make any sense for any other country. You might get away with it for Wales, but it doesn't work as well.
Obviously, he had to resemble the English flag, George's Cross, but that in itself is tricky. I could visualise how I would put the cross on the head, but that was about it. It took me quite a time to even think where I would put the rest of the crosses on, not to mention (though I will) the amount of crosses I choose to put on the tail, and the fact that they had to stick to the top of the tail and decrease in size. I was there for a while on that..
I then had to decide if I would have only the crosses in red, and the rest white. After a while I realised that having white sails and wing membranes would look to plane, so I made those red too, and it gave it quite a dramatic effect. Though, the best part didn't come until I had added shading to the white areas.
White is the hardest colour to give a creature, black comes second. It's all about light, and how it wraps around a body and causes shadow. If light were really creating shadow on something white, the shadow would be grey, but it's a good tip to use blue when dealing with white, as it gives it another type of contrast. I decided that soft style shading would be best, so the blue had to be built up very carefully
The Dragon's physical anatomy came fairly easy. I was surprised that I didn't have more difficulty with it. Considering that it was only 2003 when I first really attempted Dragons and the outcome was hideous, and also that I've not been drawing Dragon anatomy for long. The How to Draw book by the NeonDragon helped.
The pitch underneath it I added later. I hadn't originally planned a background, but seeing as he's holding a football in his foot, something was needed to show why. I toyed with the idea of doing a full background, complete with fans, but that would have spoiled the contrast of the image, and directed attention away from Playin' there. In the end I decided that a simple pitch on the floor beneath him would do. Unfortunately, I don't know by heart what a football pitch looks like. Lucky for me that the late night summaries of the matches were taking place. Getting a descent oval was virtually impossible, so I had to adapt a kind of template, which was in fact the cardboard lit from a tissue box. Get your tools where you can, people!
I added the words and boarders in PowerPoint, it took me a while to get them right, which is why I haven't yet corrected my 'Foot Ball' mistake. But overall I am extremely happy with this pic.
