Museum Entry: Thunder Dragon Emperor Enraiga













 
Greetings. It's been a long time coming, but the photos of the Thunder Dragon are finally finished. This project is easily the largest and most complicated of the dragon heads and its concept evolved slightly since the early phases of development. Here are the pictures of the Thunder Dragon, Enraiga.
  
3/4 View
Close-up view
Here are two side views of the piece. Enraiga's color scheme is meant to reflect the bright intensity of thunder and lightning and I used a blending of bright yellows mixed with blues to reflect this. The jaws and throat are a more subdued gray color which is more neutral and contrasts with the teeth. The white inner teeth are made of glow-in-the-dark clay. As mentioned before, I wanted to try something different with this piece and made the jagged outer jaws in addition to the individual fangs. I think it adds a unique flair to the piece.


Top-down view
Close-up view
In the top-down shots here, you can see the darker blue color scheme of the upper part of the head and horns. I wanted this dragon to have a more regal appearance fitting of an elder dragon so I added long arched horns that sloped off the head and branched. It took a lot of reinforcing to hold their shape but they've since maintained their position. You can also see the gold glass stones decorating the head of the piece to match the yellow color scheme and provide contrast against the blue.

Front view
The frontal view taken from below shows the piece head-on. The jagged jaws are a bit harder to see here but the inner white teeth are more apparent. The piece overall has a more narrow shape than some of the others I've made. This is compensated by the head's overall length/height and including the horns it's at least six feet tall. I actually had to mount it up higher on the wall in order for it to display properly.

To offer a bit of background on Enraiga's concept, this dragon was intended to have a more regal design fitting of a title of 'Dragon Emperor' while reflecting a thunder/lightning elemental affinity. Finally, Enraiga's name in Japanese can be represented as [炎雷牙] which means 'blazing thunder fang'. I did start off with an initial base design in emblem for this one as shown below:

 
 
The basis shape of the head is consistent with the large horns and the color scheme reflected a combination of yellow and blue. I think the decision to blend the colors ultimately worked out.
 
That should be it for now. The pictures of the hydra are done and I'm in the process of sorting them out. I'll prepare a post for that one as well once I've created the emblem for it. Stay tuned.
 
~Zan

 

MLP: FiM Season 4 Celebration! New Button Sets Are Live


Hi there, Pony Fans! Friendship is Magic is set to start up its fourth season this week and the internet is buzzing with excitement! To celebrate the kickoff, I've completed six new sets of face buttons for the Mane Six and they're up on our Etsy store! Check out some previous of the new buttons below!


Fluttershy AKA Still Best Pony

Pinkie Pie

[Princess] Twilight Sparkle

Rarity

Rainbow Dash

Applejack

That's all for now. Don't forget that you can still mix and match your orders with all of our other posted sets. Just be sure to tell us which ones you want and don't be afraid to ask us questions!

~Multi Palette out.

Hydra Project Update



Greetings. As is typical of large projects, the papier mache hydra proved to be too complex to finish by Halloween. To provide an update, here are some more current WIP shots of the piece. It's actually completed as of this post and I will follow up soon with a full set of pictures and a write-up. In order to finally finish off the Thunder Dragon, I'm planning to re-shoot the pictures of that project at the same time. Depending on the size of the posts, I'll either cover both at once or in two consecutive entries here.

Side view
This is a side shot that shows pretty much the entire piece. The body winds around to the side and can be seen in the later shots. After attaching all the heads, I reinforced the necks with several layers of cloth skin over wire hangers to add stability. The one that required the most support was the central larger head.

Close up side view

Front view
 From the front, the width of the pieces can be seen in this shot. I tried to give the piece an organic look by positioning and aligning each of the heads in their own direction.

Top-down
This shot from above obscures the body of the hydra bit due to the winding necks of each head. You can see how utterly massive the entire creature is.

Head 1

Head 2

Head 3

Head 4

Head 5
The four smaller heads and their serpentine shape can be seen in the first four of these shots. The fifth larger central head has a more dragonlike shape originally detailed in the initial concept sketches. I added a few ridges along the snout and head and a row to each of the smaller necks to give some additional detail. The main head required quite a bit of hanger support and I actually tied it to a nearby lamp with wire while it dried during the cloth phase. I plan on keeping it supported for a while after the piece was completed to give the skin and paint time to cure. It should become rigid and hold its shape over time due to the support.

That's it for now. As I mentioned at the beginning, the piece is finished and needs to be photographed now. Hopefully I can get a full set of images up this weekend and also finally post the completed Thunder Dragon as well.

Regarding our previously mentioned discussion with the new potential artists, I've commissioned a set of smaller stylized drawings of my dragons as the entry project for this new artist. The management decided to have them posted as an introduction a little bit later. Finally, expect some new Pony content from Multi Palette within the next week. It seems like I've been delegated the responsibility of news reporter.

Hm.

~Zan