Very pretty!

Thanks!

Pred...This is absolutely beautiful!!
Where do you start haha.
I love the details of the scales and how happy she looks. Is that a eyebrow/frill piercing with 2 rings I can see ?

I love how her snout markings fade,she has so many details!

The background is incredible,the mountains,trees and the sky..It looks like a sky full of glitter and the reflection in the calm waters.

Amazing work as always Pred, I love you're work I feel you discover something new everytime you look at your work.

Keep it up! :D

Oh wow, thanks for the kind words! It's always a pleasure to see that you like my work and appreciate the details I put into these art pieces.

She doesn't have an eyebrow frill piercing. I think it may just be a mistake I made on the shading on her frill there, and FA's upload size limit isn't big enough to zoom in very far.

I've been figuring out her stripe patterns and general color palette more and more each time I draw her, and I've really been in the mood to draw Kiearra lately.

I'm glad you like my background as well! I referenced high altitude, glacial lakes for it and wanted a really nice, crisp, cold, icy vibe to compliment the black scales in the starlight.

she ha absolutly big beautifull wings i could stare at her like that all day

The biggest and the most beautiful wings!

*My, what beautiful wings you have!*

Really though, the last few pieces of art you have uploaded are simply amazing. The fun and cool poses (like Wing Handstand), the detail you put into Kiearra, and the beautiful backgrounds with just as much detail.... your works are a joy to behold.

Looking forward to seeing more of your beautiful dragoness :)

Thank you! *Holds huge, powerful wings up as high and wide as possible, clearly pleased and proud*

I've been figuring my art process and style a lot more with my last few works, and feel it really started to come through starting with the one with the runestone and the two humans. With the backgrounds, I've gotten a lot more comfortable and a lot faster at painting them, often involving a lot less layers than I used to use to create them. With the detail and shading process on my dragons, I've gotten better at getting my shading down and am figuring out how to color the color "black" better.

I'm glad my efforts have been showing through in my final result, as with this piece I spent a lot of time just troubleshooting and figuring out a lot of things. Stuff like making Kiearra's colors look black yet bright and vibrant were really challenging, as she kept wanting to look silver if I made her too bright.

Thanks for the kind words, and I'm definitely excited to draw more dragon art!

Beautiful indeed, i like how she came all this way to visit this wonderful looking place. It gives off the impression of an of an Arctic winter, but a friendly one to a dragon like her and the scenery blends in perfectly. I don't think there's any place on earth which can show that many stars these days.

As for the dragon herself, I love the way she's just showing off here because she's so detailed and strong. Her wings are one of the more well designed types as well i like that inclusion. She's enjoying herself to the absolute maximum!

Thanks! And yeah, I've never seen a sky like this for real. Even in more remote areas, it's not this spectacular, though I have seen long-exposure, real-world photos that come close to having such splendor. I certainly went a bit over the top fantasy with how vibrant, bright, and illuminating the stars are not just in the sky but across the entire landscape, as Kiearra is star-lit here, with only weak directional light for her shading. It was a very fun background and scene to create.

I've got a good bit of Kiearra's dragon clan / species figured out, and it is heavily based on an adventurous, nomadic lifestyle.

She's a "Wing Dragon (I need a better name for this)." Wing dragons have no permanent home, den, or territory. Instead, they frequently travel about, constantly visiting new places. Wing dragons are very adventurous and adept travelers. Having to constantly learn how to survive in new places full of new sources of prey or food, they're highly intelligent and tend to also have a high degree of fitness and athleticism. Wing Dragons are also very social, as they often visit and converse with more sessile dragons that form territories or permanent residences. Due to a Wing Dragon's lack of interest in territory-forming, they're often welcomed into other dragon territories, as they're seen as not being a territorial competitor. They also bring good luck. This luck comes in the form of knowledge about the rest of the world and what lies beyond the borders of a more territorial dragon's realm.

Kiearra is also a lightning dragon and enjoys the thrill of flying in intense storms. Flying in highly temperamental weather really works out her wings, which is part of my rationale for why her wings are very well-developed and strong. She's very proud of them in this picture!

It looks like there's enough stars here to create the equivalent of a full moon's light even if the moon isn't out. Meaning that it would probably be bright enough to easily see by even for a human if the moon and the stars are both out.

I get it, wing dragon as in take wing and fly wherever they want. Maybe you could take suggestions for a better name if you think you need one? They would obviously be better Flyers than most Dragons as well either through cultural training inherent ability or a combination of both.

Lightning Dragons ? What kinds of elements can Dragons wield in your setting and are they immune to the element they wield ? As in if you gave a lightning dragon an electric shock would it do anything at all or are they immune to it?

I may do that sometime! I'd prefer a better name, for sure.

Interestingly, one of the silly quirks about Kiearra is she's not actually a very good lightning dragon. For a long time, she believed herself to be without a breath attack at all. It's one of the reasons her physique is so good, as she's been fighting, hunting, exploring, and existing without using one for her entire life.

For a while, simultaneously, she believed thunderstorms were sentient and that she could speak to them. What was actually happening was the thunderstorm's electrical currents were activating her electromagnetic sense (think a amped up version of birds' ability to sense the Earth's magnetic fields) and she interpreted it as speech. She'd activate her electrical abilities unknowingly while she spoke back to the storm, which would result in it responding to her in ways she interpreted as a conversation.

Only more recently has she realized she's been the one controlling the storms, and that it's just particularly easy for her to tap into her electrical capabilities while inside of one. She can sometimes activate her electrical powers, but it's often erratic or poorly controlled.

I haven't really developed a lot more than this regarding what sorts of breath attacks are around. There is certainly ice, fire, and electric types.

A dragons wings are their biggest pride, for what would they be without the ability to fly? All the gold in the world wouldnt give you that sense of freedom and independance

I would definitely imagine dragons would take great pride in their wings and use them for a wide range of gestures. Wide, outstretched wings would certainly signify confidence and pride. I always love drawing pictures where dragons are showing their wings off.

The sense of freedom and independence is a huge part of what I find so mesmerizing about the idea of being a dragon, and having a pair of powerful, strong wings is something I consider incredibly important.

Kiearra actually doesn't even like gold or gems. She finds them ugly, and doesn't really understand why they have such value bestowed upon them. A strong pair of wings is indeed worth more gold than is in the entire world.

For me, my wings are incredibly important. My species actually evolved so that they can stay in the air for an incredible amount of time, using their large wingspan and the ability to "lock" their wings in the fully extended position to drift for ages. They are also ambush predators, like a falcon diving from high above to swoop up prey. Additionally in our society, flight is incredibly important as well, buildings often dont even have stairs or entryways, just holes in the side to land in!

So yeah I for sure take great pride in my wings. Always love other dragons doing so too

Ooooo locking wing joints are a very nice adaptation. It's one I haven't really thought about before. That sounds like a very nice dragon civilization. I may develop a similar world for Kiearra someday that has structures like these, with wide open landing platforms and open sky everywhere. It'd be wonderful to be a dragon and live in such a world.

I too love it when dragons take pride in their wings, putting them on full display.

Breathtaking!

Thanks!

Absolutely gorgeous piece, and such joy on the expression :D! Wings are a blessing!

Thanks! The expression was inspired by an artpiece I saw three years ago where a dragon was joyously jumping into the air with their wings outstretched. They had a similar, looking up at the face when the eye is closed and the jaw is smiling vibe, and I was happy to finally draw my own take on such an expression. Wings are most definitely a blessing, it'd be wonderful to have them. I really want to draw the wings strong, sturdy, and flight-capable looking as it makes imagining the fantasy of what it'd be like to be able to fly a bit more real.

This looks super good! The background looks great, which the stars, and the reflections in the water. It looks like it must have taken a lot of work.
And of course, the dragon and their wings looks beautiful too!

Thanks, Blurfulby! I've been getting a bit faster at making the backgrounds, so it only took me a few days to make the background. I spent most of my time on the initial sketch I think. The shading part actually goes pretty quickly once I have the sketch down.

Sketch was about 2'ish weeks to 2.5. I usually do the most research and reference looking and stuff at this part.
Background was about 3 days
block coloring was about 2 days
Shading was 4 days or so

The muscle definition that pulls from the torso to the winglimbs are utterly fantastic. I absolutely adore everything about this piece.

omg thank you! Just last Saturday I spent a couple hours working out that very specific muscle tone such that you'd be able to see how the flight muscles come into the torso and wrap around to the keel on the front of the chest. I'm really glad you noticed it!

That's incredible dedication! And it absolutely paid off!

Your wings are handsome ^.=.^

Thank you! I am quite proud of them.

I have been coming back to this drawing multiple times since you posted it. It is just *so* good, I absolutely adore the expression, the setting composition and the emotion this gives.

An easy 10/10 score from me, and I am not saying that lightly!

That makes me really glad to hear. I certainly have a few favorite pieces of art I've seen that I return to over and over again as well. It really does make me happy to hear that I've made one that has had this effect on somebody. I'm especially happy to hear the expression and body language really hits the way I intended for it to!

I sometimes come back to this piece, just to admire it, like how one may turn a perfectly cut amethyst over in their palm. From the stars to the lake, to the mountains, it’s such a gorgeous backdrop.

Looking to Kiearra, I can’t help but imagine how those scales and the wing membrane would feel under my hands.

Thank you again, haha. I'm really glad you've returned to see this artwork again!

So gorgeous and atmospheric <3

Ty!

Oh, what a glorious piece! Love the backstory too, what an actual dream!!!! ^.=.^

Ty! I'm glad you enjoyed reading the story part as well!

She is beautiful !

Aww thank you!!!