SCBWI “bloom” submission, feedback welcome

ArtofAleksey

@MichaelaH ok I think I’m on to something. I’m going to make the dragon a big hill, lean into that more. Gonna have various plants growing on the dragon and have the little girl watering the flowers on the back. The spine of the dragon is a little pathway up to the flowers.

The story I’m going for is that this dragon has been sleeping for a long time and is now covered in plants (gonna put more plants) and this little girl has been watering the plants over the years and has made a garden. I’m gonna probably add more plants on the wing and stuff too so you don’t realize this hill is actually a dragon until you look closer. The focal point will be the little girl because of the path and the hat will probably be red.

Please share your thoughts

Heather Bouteneff

I like the perspective of the second one with the star? But I think the last one is lovely and clean and still tells your story well. I think the deadline for this is the 20th too so whichever is easier for you to get done in that time if that is a factor. I'm excited to see this!

burvantill

@Aleksey yes

ArtofAleksey

@Heather-Bouteneff yeah it’s a bit last minute but im gonna try. And if i miss it i have a nice portfolio piece.

ArtofAleksey

I think the house was throwing the piece off a bit and not really adding anything

ArtofAleksey

Preliminary sketch

Heather Bouteneff

@Aleksey you got this! Something very fresh air, breezy Ghibli here, keep going!

ArtofAleksey

@Heather-Bouteneff oh stop. Thanks gonna keep going. I have to it’s due in 2 days!

MichaelaH

@Aleksey It looks really great, love the new idea

Roxana Antochi

The illustration looks very nice, I like the concept. Have you thought about flipping it horizontally, so that the focus is on the upper right? It seems as though your eye comes back to the left, although the original direction is toward the right.

Something like this. I was thinking it would also look better with some more depth, so I added some foreground plants which also help to frame it. I hope I'm not intruding on your illustration

ArtofAleksey

@Roxana-Antochi no you’re not intruding. The tail is technically the foreground element and I don’t wanna cover it because i want that to feel like a “path” leading up to the little girl at the top.

Ill try to flip it see what happens

MichaelaH

@Aleksey I like the idea with the path (tail) leading to the girl, what I would make better, the girl is almost at the edge, maybe some more free space above the girl like Roxana did. And maybe some little bridge on that part of the tail, where the wing lies?

ArtofAleksey

I already inked it because i only have today to finish it lol. I really wanna get this in by the deadline. Inked:

demotlj

@Aleksey I really like how you developed this and the scene is great. It was funny, though, because for a second I got confused and thought you were doing this for the SVS "moment before" contest and wondered if things were about to get bloody when the dragon woke up! Glad it's for the "bloom" prompt; it's a much sweeter picture that way It's amazing how different captions can put an entirely different mood to a drawing.

ArtofAleksey

@demotlj haha yes even though it’s a different prompt i still thought about this. I made sure to not show any sharp points, like on the ends of the wings, made rounded claws, no teeth, no spikes, rounded point of the tail. Even though this dragon is big, it’s been asleep there for a while and is now overgrown with plants. Tried to make it look nonthreatening as best as I could with the time I had left.

Heather Boyd

@Aleksey The one you stared has a lot more weight presence -that's what I like most about it. It be interesting if your dragon was so large that he/she was pressing on and leaning over a fence. I like the fence in the first one. Sorry this comment was concerning the 3 valued sketches a few drawings back lols -I hadn't noticed how far your drawing has come.

Heather Boyd

@Aleksey Now that I have seen the latest haha -the little girl is in profile while I find a lot of your other elements are in a 3/4 s view. Maybe if you twisted her a bit - I find she gets lost a bit -drawing version (not colour/valued added yet -I know). I read her as a second read and the dragon - 3 vegetable patches first.

MichaelaH

@Aleksey It looks great

ArtofAleksey

@Heather-Boyd yeah i realized this too im gonna try some stuff digitally to improve it. And yeah originally it wasnt gonna be profile but Idk i kinda like it.

ArtofAleksey

Ok I made it on time!