I found a picture of two scary, medieval dragons that I just loved and wanted to make my own version. I can’t remember now where I found the image – somewhere on the internet – but it was displayed at an angle, so I needed to straighten it up.
Which I did using PhotoShop’s Perspective tool. Although it was fuzzy around some of the edges, I had enough to make a sketch from. I outlined it on stretched watercolour paper and, laid down the gold leaf. There was beautiful embossing on the original which I did not copy, but I felt pleased with the way the gold leaf had taken.
There are a number of raised – domed blobs of gold! Those, for me, were going to be one of the last touches to the picture.
Then it was time to paint, which was such a joy on this piece. And there’s a video here that whizzes through that process.
Sorry about my hand getting in the way as I filmed.
The finished picture.
