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Well now. Here's a thing. Not the two Pokemon things I was working on, I kind of ran out of steam for them, so maybe next month. But yesterday, I went to see How to Train Your Dragon 3. I was fairly excited for it - not only because the first two were good, but also because... well, you know. This is me we're talking about. So I feel like some fanart, particularly anthro, was inevitable. The film was good, too - it had exactly the same strengths and weaknesses as the other two, so overall a very solid film. My eyes got a bit moist at the ending too...

My, uh... appreciation for dragons is no secret among the family. My mum occasionally good-naturedly teases me about it, and after the film she asked me if I'd rather marry Astrid (the blonde girl) or the Light Fury (the white dragon you see above). It was... an interesting question, to say the least. My eventual answer was neither, because it's true. I just... can't imagine myself ever wanting to have a relationship. (Also the fact that in the film, the Light Fury isn't anthro... but of course I didn't say that. ) But she is a cutie, I have to admit. I do like her design... things like the glittery scales, the blue eyes, and the heart motif on the tail.

But that conversation actually made me think about the dragon (who the fans are calling "Nubless") a lot more than I otherwise would. There was this drawing idea I had which may or may not come to fruition, which would be more polished than this pic, but first I drew some sketches to get used to her design, and I was surprised how easily and comfortably she slipped into my style. You can see them here:

The one on the top right was the first sketch and the one on the bottom right was the last.

today I wanted to do something rough and experimental. I've recently downloaded some Photoshop brushes and wanted to try them out. I think every mark in the finished product is from one of these brushes. I was going for a sort of painterly look with the shading, but I don't love the way it turned out. I don't think the brush I used was right. Maybe I just didn't develop it enough... I dunno, the digital painting thing has been a bit of a roadblock for me since I started seriously trying to to it in 2015. The last time I did this kind of shading was with Buffbreon, just over a year ago:

There, I just used the standard plain brush, but I also developed the shading more so it was smoother, by using the Mixer Brush. This time I didn't do that to try and preserve the texture of the brush I was using... but it didn't have enough texture to really come out. In fact, you really have to zoom in to even really see the texture of anything. (1280x1280 is about the lowest res you can easily see the texture at.) Buffbreon didn't really work for me in retrospect, though - it just looked messy and unfinished. I dunno, maybe Nubless here is saved by the rest of her drawing ALSO being rough, as opposed to my normal clean lines and smooth colours.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot about the title. XD

Yes, don't mind that, it's just me goofing around. Tch, I'm so wacky, I don't know what I'll do next. (etc, etc) I mean, c'mon, I have to preach the good word of flat dragon girls. (Someone's got to do it.) But I've seen some of the anthro fanart that's already out there, and some of it came back to mind once I started drawing this... I kind of had an epiphany. So it's bothered me for some time how some furry artists will just stick the unchanged head of the character they're anthrofying on a stock supermodel body. I never realised before WHY it sometimes annoyed me and other times didn't. So I instinctively drew this with soft, chunky shapes, and happened to wonder what someone might say if they saw me drawing it - perhaps "Why does that dragon have thick thighs?" Then I tried to answer the question, and realised something that should have been obvious. The reason the picture(s) of Nubless with the tall hourglass figure bothered me so much was because it just did. not. work. with her design. Everything about her head, wing, tail and limb design is soft, rounded... I want to say squishy-looking, like a marshmallow. The tail is the only part that really departs from that. So of course she works best as an anthro when her body is ALSO soft and rounded. Short stature, stubby limbs, "thicc" hips and thighs. I dunno, I just thought it was interesting.

How do I keep managing to write 1000-word essays in the description of even simple pics like this?? It's kind of annoying, honestly, because I know most of it is unnecessary and no-one will read it anyway.

(Though technically this description is only ~800 words, but who's counting.)

Description

Well now. Here's a thing. Not the two Pokemon things I was working on, I kind of ran out of steam for them, so maybe next month. But yesterday, I went to see How to Train Your Dragon 3. I was fairly excited for it - not only because the first two were good, but also because... well, you know. This is me we're talking about. So I feel like some fanart, particularly anthro, was inevitable. The film was good, too - it had exactly the same strengths and weaknesses as the other two, so overall a very solid film. My eyes got a bit moist at the ending too...

My, uh... appreciation for dragons is no secret among the family. My mum occasionally good-naturedly teases me about it, and after the film she asked me if I'd rather marry Astrid (the blonde girl) or the Light Fury (the white dragon you see above). It was... an interesting question, to say the least. My eventual answer was neither, because it's true. I just... can't imagine myself ever wanting to have a relationship. (Also the fact that in the film, the Light Fury isn't anthro... but of course I didn't say that. ) But she is a cutie, I have to admit. I do like her design... things like the glittery scales, the blue eyes, and the heart motif on the tail.

But that conversation actually made me think about the dragon (who the fans are calling "Nubless") a lot more than I otherwise would. There was this drawing idea I had which may or may not come to fruition, which would be more polished than this pic, but first I drew some sketches to get used to her design, and I was surprised how easily and comfortably she slipped into my style. You can see them here:

The one on the top right was the first sketch and the one on the bottom right was the last.

today I wanted to do something rough and experimental. I've recently downloaded some Photoshop brushes and wanted to try them out. I think every mark in the finished product is from one of these brushes. I was going for a sort of painterly look with the shading, but I don't love the way it turned out. I don't think the brush I used was right. Maybe I just didn't develop it enough... I dunno, the digital painting thing has been a bit of a roadblock for me since I started seriously trying to to it in 2015. The last time I did this kind of shading was with Buffbreon, just over a year ago:

There, I just used the standard plain brush, but I also developed the shading more so it was smoother, by using the Mixer Brush. This time I didn't do that to try and preserve the texture of the brush I was using... but it didn't have enough texture to really come out. In fact, you really have to zoom in to even really see the texture of anything. (1280x1280 is about the lowest res you can easily see the texture at.) Buffbreon didn't really work for me in retrospect, though - it just looked messy and unfinished. I dunno, maybe Nubless here is saved by the rest of her drawing ALSO being rough, as opposed to my normal clean lines and smooth colours.

Oh yes, and I almost forgot about the title. XD

Yes, don't mind that, it's just me goofing around. Tch, I'm so wacky, I don't know what I'll do next. (etc, etc) I mean, c'mon, I have to preach the good word of flat dragon girls. (Someone's got to do it.) But I've seen some of the anthro fanart that's already out there, and some of it came back to mind once I started drawing this... I kind of had an epiphany. So it's bothered me for some time how some furry artists will just stick the unchanged head of the character they're anthrofying on a stock supermodel body. I never realised before WHY it sometimes annoyed me and other times didn't. So I instinctively drew this with soft, chunky shapes, and happened to wonder what someone might say if they saw me drawing it - perhaps "Why does that dragon have thick thighs?" Then I tried to answer the question, and realised something that should have been obvious. The reason the picture(s) of Nubless with the tall hourglass figure bothered me so much was because it just did. not. work. with her design. Everything about her head, wing, tail and limb design is soft, rounded... I want to say squishy-looking, like a marshmallow. The tail is the only part that really departs from that. So of course she works best as an anthro when her body is ALSO soft and rounded. Short stature, stubby limbs, "thicc" hips and thighs. I dunno, I just thought it was interesting.

How do I keep managing to write 1000-word essays in the description of even simple pics like this?? It's kind of annoying, honestly, because I know most of it is unnecessary and no-one will read it anyway.

(Though technically this description is only ~800 words, but who's counting.)