Dragon Rider

After doing Venom and being so thrilled with the result, I wanted to make something big. I couldn't settle for something small or unexciting, so I decided to sculpt a huge dragon ridden by a king.

I did this without any specific reference. I just imagined a Game of Thrones style scene, modified to feature a fat king. I could have searched for references, and there is no shortage of them out there for people riding dragons, but I already had plenty of images in my imagination. I deliberately didn't want to sculpt a ripped, muscular character. Personally - and this is purely speculative - I assume most kings would have been fat. Assuming people didn't really work out, and considering the king basically had a management desk job with access to the absolute best food, a human king in my mind would almost always be fat.

I don't like the result much. The dragon isn't very detailed. There is some nice anatomy in the neck, but the rest of it is pretty much one big mass of the same scale texture, made with a DIY tool and applied all over the skin. The king was also the smallest figure I had sculpted up to that point, and he just isn't that finely detailed or well executed.

It is still an eye-catcher, and I see people get excited over it. But for me it feels a bit populist, basically just a crowd-pleaser. It looks cool at first glance, but as far as the actual sculpting, painting and scenery go, it is definitely not my best work. Next time I'd want different details for richness: artifacts, textures and colors.