A Trip Down the Memory Lane- Week 1!

Hello guys! One of my biggest complaints on Steemit is how my art and hard work becomes obsolete after less than a week. Moreover, many of my current followers have not seen my early posts, probably because it's pretty damn difficult to find anything on Steemit ;P And what's more is that some of the images get removed over the time, I'm not sure why. Possibly they weren't stored well in the first place by a witness? This is just my guess.

The following is my second ever post on Steemit right after my rather simple introduction post. Originally I made the art for a website where you create art for cards and collect them. I won't name the site, because I felt very scammed by them so I will not give them publicity. They didn't even remove my work from their site after I emailed them over 5 times. So it was a pleasant surprise when I received my first Curie vote for the art. I got more money in the first week of Steemit than the 2 whole months of that other website. I spent around a year on the whole dragon collection in my little sketchbook. I think it would take me way less time right now, but at the time it was a huge breakthrough for me. I used to draw for other's enjoyment, this project was for my personal joy <3

Funnily enough, when I first got the vote, I refreshed and my jaw dropped when I saw the number. I was damn sure it was a glitch. I refreshed 5 more times, feeling sure that it will revert back to 0.00 haha. I didn't even know what Curie was at the time. I admit I was slightly disappointed, but more confused when the post's value dropped by 50% literally by the time of the payout, but I knew what to expect the next time and to prepare for the big drop.

I discovered Steemit thanks to my husband and our mutual friend tried it before me. So I received a lot of feedback for how to present my posts as well as possible. For example how to use the page dividers and some markdown tips. I've shared everything I know in my other posts, because I believe it works.

I plan to continue sharing my favorite old posts like this on Sundays, I'll probably go from my oldest post to newer, or simply based on a whim ;) Let me know if you like this idea or not and I'd appreciate your reason why. ^^ If anyone else would like to try this, I think it would be awesome as there are many posts that I've missed and this is a nice way to catch up!

A lot of these drawings were done in a tiny A6 sketchbook. I started with A5 because it's less daunting to get started than a big blank paper. Afterwards I photographed each drawing and digitally colored the background for much stronger contrast and added some shading.

I was always fascinated by dragons especially since I saw The Last Dragon when I was 11 on TV. However, over time most dragons started all looking similar, "How to Train Your Dragon" was a great deviation from the traditional lizard dragons. With this project I am trying to explore as many variations of designs and I will try to expand styles and mediums. I began this project last year and it is still ongoing.

This is Desdemon

It is a nocturnal dragon that has eyes that glow softly in the dark. It eats berries and sweeter leaves. I doesn't grow very tall, roughly 75 cm or 2,5 feet and favorite food is wild strawberries and has a great sense of smell.

This was my first ink pen dragon, which inspired many more. It was heavily inspired by Burtonesque style, but eventually I evolved it. Before that I was hesitant to use black ink pens, because the ink can easily penetrate the paper, and it's much harder to fix mistakes. (Used a 0.2 pigment ink pen)

Process: First I outlined the pencil sketch with an ink pen. Then I accentuated the important details, while
the rest were ignored. This way the dragon is more recognizable without having to draw every single strand of fur or each scale. Sometimes I draw more freely without doing the outline first.

Rubyfer

Loves red gems and sometimes red glass. Uses its sharp teeth to reshape the stones into new shapes. Those stones are then used to attract a companion. Also loves stealing medium necklace gems which are perfect size.

Gweeber

A chameleon cousin. Has sharp claws for climbing and communicates with the rest through colorful flames.
They can mate with ordinary chameleons resulting in either 100% gweebs or chameleons, never a hybrid.

Minimakrila

These dragons live in high altitudes and use their wings for balance rather than flight. The eat tiny prey and sometimes plants. Extremely friendly with humans. Some are known to bond with nomads for many generations.

The original without retouching

If anyone wants to see a bit more, you can see here: https://steemit.com/art/@kristyglas/dragons-part-1

Also I think the payout was half of what it currently shows on the post. I might be wrong tho :)

(I keep a word document with all my post links and I should probably update it haha) ^^

Random Games Week 8!!: https://steemit.com/contest/@kristyglas/random-games-week-8-collaborative-story

My Previous post- A Dark Mermaid: https://steemit.com/originalcontent/@kristyglas/the-dark-mermaid-of-atlantis-original-character-design-and-full-process

Thank you for reading! Have an awesome day <3