A Brace Of Dragons

[vector]

HI , All,

I posted part of this in the archery section but now its complete Ill post it here.

This is a culmination of many hours. I have learnt so much along the way and thanks to those on here who have posted various tutorials and posts which have helped.

I was making this for two friends. The idea was to have semi matching armguards. I had better luck with the colouring and shading on the closed mouth one. The aggressive open mouthed one was a kinda trial for various techniques b4 I did the second.

Closed mouth armguard.

I wanted the shading to give a "camouflaged in the forest" look. I also wanted the shading to darken as it rolled around the arm thus highlighting the dragon itself and throwing the "shadow lizards" into the doom n gloom of the "dark side" of the arm

The edge on photo is my favourite, it shows up the depth and tooling nicely (and mistakes . Un fortunately the button was crooked. It self aligns when its worn, via the elastic. I forgot to prop it when taking this shot. I also did not notice the slight kink in the lower horn tip until this very moment, the image really stands it out.. now I will always see it Its amazing how we are blind to some things during the making.

The stitching idea sorta worked?

I wanted it to look like part of the boarder. I tooled a celtic knot boarder(not a great stamp I must admit) and used its centres to mark the stitching holes. I used green and red thread so that every other hole/stitch was almost invisable. Ie only the red showed.

The upper part of the "mane" back of the head under the horns was an attempt at feathers. I wanted a hairy dragon (its brother is scales) with a feather topped main.. didnt quite work out but I think it looks ok.

The tribal (black markings) was intended to make the dragon a little unique and match its brother armguard. I was happy with the depth I achieved on these.

The other shots were not sharp.. I have a lot of trouble getting focus on this old camera but hopefully you get the gist.

The aggressive one:

More a classic scale type dragon this one was a little more aggressive and the test of various techniques. I am not happy with the colouring I have a lot to learn about dyeing leather Hopefully you will notice that this one has a much more noticeable "hallo" . The second one is better in this respect. I tooled right up to the bevel and got rid of most of that beginners hallo error.

The shadow lizards are not indented in this one. Im still not sure which way I like best.

Unfortunately Id already cut and stamped both b4 I realised that the buttons were going to sit right on top of some of the runes lettering. Now thats a mistake even I shouldnt have made

I had a lot of trouble tooling the mouth, I just could not get the tongue to look right.

All in all Im happy with this attempt but humbled by its poor level compared to some of the magestic things on this site. But I guess ya gotta start somewhere and each peice I do I can always see improvements.

So much more to learn so little time to spend on it...back to my day job

appreciate any thougths

[Suze]

I like them

[Timd]

Me too

[csoty]

The colours are perfect!