A friend of mine bought a 3D printer and sent me some neat models to check out. I really liked the dragon holding a pearl (source) so I promised to paint it for his kids. The two boys could choose the primary colors; they went for red & green. In overall I’m very happy with the results. When I began inspecting the model, I didn’t understand what the vine-like details where that covered the body, especially because it also seemed to engulf the pearl. I decided that the globe and vines were a type of flower which the dragon was trying to obtain. The vines were trying to defend the globe by entrapping the dragon all over. To make this work, I just had to connect the vines around the gelobe with those around then arm holding it. I really liked having to fantasize what was happening, it helped in choosing what and how to paint.
My only regret is that I went a bit overboard on the drybrushing with white in the end. I want the head to be a bit lighter due to the glow from the golden globe, but this resulted in a more washed out look as you can see here:
Still, this one was great fun to paint; trying to reach all the places of the curling body was a challenge.
Tim Dams 