Doodle 3 - Grampy Dragon

Grampy

I went again with the black and white format for this.  I do have a choice, since all drawings begin as pencil.  I have to judge whether or not I want to flesh it out in pencil, which always looks good but can take a greater amount of time, or take the road less traveled and convert to pen and ink.  Even after the pen is done, I can go back and add more with the pencil, though I rarely do.  Black and white is very well suited for logo design, T-shirts and so on, so I don’t like to mix in pencil often (ignore Doodle 2).  I do love pencil, but I’m in an “ink phase” at the moment, so just stay with me and we’ll see pencil work come back out sooner or later.

Wrinkles are so fun to make.  One because you can cover up any mistake in the drawing with a few lines and then claim it was supposed to be like that.  Two, because old people are beautiful and by association old monsters are too.  His eyes tell of an absence of threat and his smile is cute and harmless.  I went with the big dopey ears, but debated a little on that.  The tail was added to give a better balance to the overall figure, as well as signify that he was a dragon, or monster, and not something else.  The hands and feet are supposed to point to an arthritic body. 

In his younger days perhaps he was a more dangerous and threatening sort, but years of aches, pains and being forced to slow down have taken all the fight out of him, until all that’s really left is a friend.  I’m starting to sound a little sappy here, so I’ll stop. 

It’s always an interesting and telling exercise to examine my own drawings and reflect on what story I would attach to the image, which I‘m certain is different than what you might say.

Your Doodler,    

Tyler