How to paint a golden dragon (1995 vs 2019) (Patreon)

You're in for a treat. Or maybe lasting damage. Proceed with caution. 

I love seeing how artists solve the "golden" problem, particularly with a disgusting creature like Glaurung. I decided to go the well-trodden path of greenish/ochre/brown with a few golden highlights, which is faithful to his name without being overly golden. 

I didn't always have such qualms about being overly golden. 

As many of you know (though I'm getting more and more reluctant to share images of it - and it's getting worse, I have to say!), in 1995 when I was in my second semester of studying English and Latin at Cologne University, I spent most of the semester drawing and painting a 52-page Silmarillion comic from Maedhros' point of view. It was basically a doujinshi, ten years before I learned the term. I drew the comic over a matter of three months (and somehow still managed to pass all of my exams, don't ask me how). I learned more about watercolour in those three months than I had learned in years before or afterwards, but well, the comic is kind of hard on the eyes now. 

In 1995, I was incredibly proud of the Glaurung page. 

That droopy look as he flees is still rather endearing. 

It's fun to try and reconstruct how I went about creature design back in those days. 

Me: I'll draw a terrifying dragon!!!1
Also me: It's not terrifying. At all.
Also me: Moar spikes! Everywhere! On his nose!
Still me: Not terrifying.
Yet again me: Shut up.