The Dragon's Den

Deadly Jack & Halloween Gifts!

2011-10-23T04:58:00.000-07:00

If your looking for a frightening Jack o Lantern to decorate a T-shirt or bag this Halloween then Deadly Jack the most evil and sinister of all Jack o Lanterns might just be what your looking for. If you'd like the Deadly Jack art work on T-shirts or Hoodies please click here, or if your after a Halloween inspired bag, badge, mug or mousepad please click here.

Death Guitarist (Grim Reaper)

2011-08-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

New art work: Death Guitarist is online and available as posters and art prints here, or mouse-pads, and portable speakers here. Enjoy!

Art Commission: Tree Woman

2011-08-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

This is a recently completed art commission I did for a nice lady in the US, who was a pleasure to work for. Plus forest paintings are one of my favorite things to do :-) The finished image can be seen below and here at my website. All commissioned art now comes with a free wallpaper for your PC or Tablet, in the case of this commission an iPad2.

"Never stop growing as
a person, who we
are is ever changing.
We become stronger
with each passing day."

Celtic Dragon

2011-08-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

New dragon art added to the art gallery, check out the new image below or click here to visit my webpage, or if you'd like to buy a poster or T-Shirt of Celtic Dragon please click here.

New Website!!

2011-08-08T02:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, It's been a while since my last post but that's because I've been busy filling up a new website, including new art to go with it! A new and more streamlined art gallery, plus the new site is easy to navigate and has links to my shops where you can find fantasy illustrated T-shits, hoodies, poster, and accessories. The web site will continue to grow so check back often! www.creativeranger.com

How To Color A Black And White Image In Photoshop

2011-01-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

This is a commonly asked question by artists and something I myself had some difficulty with so I thought I'd write a tutorial for other artists looking for some assistance.

Before we start you'll need ether a black and white photo or have already done a painting in greyscale. If your doing a painting keep in mind that for best results your painting should have a wide range of greyscale tones from almost absolute black to almost pure white, and the reason I say almost is because pure white and black are not going to absorb any color, you can paint in pure white highlights later, or use levels at the end to get the extreme lights and darks. Your image should basically be a finished greyscale painting, doing art this way has the added benefit of allowing you to focus on your tonal values and avoid elements in the image ending up separated only by color, a common mistake.

The first step in adding color is to get a base down and a simple way to do this is to pick a foreground color from the tool bar that is a mid tone of what you intend the overall color of the image to be, then pick a slightly darker version of the first color as the background. Next make a new layer and go to: filter - render - clouds. Change layer mode to Color and reduce it's opacity to about 30-50% This will add the initial color and some variation to work from. If your base colors are worm like mine you can make a new layer called shadows, set mode to color and paint in some mid tone blue in the shadows with a soft brush at a low opacity to cool the shadows down. Next make a series of new layers named reds, greens, yellows and so on for each color you wont to use and with a similar brush to the one used for the shadows start lightly painting in your desired colors and basically blocking in what color goes where. You will have to experiment at this stage with layer modes and opacity to find the right balance for your image as every image will be different, I find the blend modes color and overlay the most useful, but also make use of soft light and multiply.

Your image should be looking like a color image that's been de-saturated by now, this is what I call the ugly stage. Your also are likely to have a lot of layers so do a save as to make a back up copy, then in the layers pallet menu flatten image. It's time to start the second stage of the color process. Photos are excellent for helping to color black and white images. For my image I have used a photo I took of some water in a mangrove forest that was a variety of greens, I blended the photo into my image to color the swamp water. To do this I just opened the photo in photoshop cut out the general part of the photo I needed using the lasso tool, moved it to my illustration and changed the blend mode and then with a soft eraser tool removed any unwonted parts of the photo. It's not necessary to use photos for their color but it dose work very well to boost the color and further detail or texture your image. Continue adding new layers of painted colour or photos. If your using photos don't forget to make color adjustments to the photos if needed or to resize the photo in transform mode (ctrl+T). At this stage it's good to open the hue and saturation (ctrl+U) and bump up the saturation if needed, and adjust levels (ctrl+L). You should now have a colourful image :-)

Gold Dragon Poster and T-shirt In Time For Christmas

2010-12-04T02:52:00.000-08:00

I have posted for sale a new illustration of a golden dragon inspired by both western and eastern design with a red silk back ground. Available as a poster, art print, canvas and gift card. Or T-shirt, long sleeve, hoddie and kids clothing. Just follow the link below if your interested in buying one :-)

Link: http://dragon84.redbubble.com/works

Path of Life wins Give It Your Best comp!

2010-11-25T21:35:00.000-08:00

I recently joined Red Bubble group Our World Of Fantasy and almost immediately entered the Give It Your Best competition, with lots of talented artists entering their best work I doubted my chances. It's not every day one wins an art comp but when it dose happen it's a nice thrill, and good motivation to keep on improving. It's not the prize that's the best part but rather the confirmation in knowing that other people like your art! Thanks to all that voted for Path of Life.

If you would like to check out my Path of Life illustration or buy a poster or print please follow the links below.

Links: http://www.redbubble.com/groups/the-unknown-world/challenges/27808-give-it-your-best

http://dragon84.redbubble.com/sets/47660/works/5804787-2-path-of-life

2011 Calendar!

2010-11-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

With the new year just around the corner I thought it time to offer a new fantastic fantasy art calendar, with a compilation of fantasy art including dragons, hideous creatures, fairy's, elves, serpents and sea creatures! The perfect Christmas gift for only $26.40 AU! Follow the link below to get yours today.

Link: http://www.redbubble.com/products/configure/6302141-calendar

New Celtic T-Shirts

2010-11-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

I have posted a new Celtic T-shirt design for sale featuring a Celtic swirl in the form of three dragons with a floral pattern of leaves flowing down the shirt, this design comes in two versions one for light coloured T-Shirts and one for dark.

If your looking for a Celtic T-shirt please follow the link below.

Link: http://dragon84.redbubble.com/sets/89729/works

Big One Featured on Red Bubble Home Page!

2010-11-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

My illustration of Big One was featured on the Red Bubble home page as part of the sea creatures collection on 12 November 2010 along with 7 other talented artists and their sea creature art. Follow the link below to check it out.

Link: http://www.redbubble.com/people/home/art/6265147-1-sea-monsters-12-november-2010

New Celtic Mug and Buttons

2010-11-13T01:50:00.000-08:00

A new coffee mug design featuring a Celtic swirl in the form of three dragons with a floral pattern of leaves flowing around the mug, and a new Celtic badge design that comes in three colours, blue, green or purple.

To see all these new products please follow the link below.

Link: http://www.zazzle.com.au/Dragon84

New and Updated Posters

2010-11-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

My portrait of Idun from Norse mythology and the ugly Pig-Dog hybrid creature are now available as posters, framed prints, canvas prints and gift cards.

Recently updated art such as, Big One, Skull Dragon and Tree Man has now also been made available as posters, framed prints, canvas prints and gift cards.

To see or buy my new and/or updated art please follow the link below. Thanks for visiting!

Link: http://dragon84.redbubble.com/sets/47660/works

How do you know when an art work is finished?

2010-10-24T01:54:00.000-07:00

Just recently in the past couple of weeks I have been taking a closer look at some of my older art works that have withstood the test of time and remained in my gallery. It's always good to look at past work and identify what you did well and what you did not so well. It's a great way to help improve, but it also brought to my attention just how much I have learnt in the past few years.

I realized when looking at some of my old art that I am now able to do and see improvements that can be made in my old art that had been done back in 2007/8/9. So dose this mean those art works are not finished? For me, yes. It was time to give my gallery an overhaul, I needed to improve my older art to make my gallery the best it can be.

I updated a number of older art works by adding some depth blur that helped pull attention to the focal point. Also improved lighting by adding some extra shadows, light beams and overall light direction. For some of the updated work such as Tree Man and The Big One, I added a new element to the foreground that framed my subject and helps to immerse the viewer in the image. I've added some embracing before and after shots and a link to my gallery below.

Link: http://www.dragon84art.com/fantasyillustration.html

Beauty and the Beast

2010-10-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

I have two new art works in my Fantasy illustration gallery, the first is an image of Idun, a goddess from Norse mythology. She guarded the apples of youth, and gave them to the gods so they may stay forever youthful. The other new art work is Pig Dog an experimental image that worked out well......and a little bit ugly.

Link: Dragon84's Fantasy Art Gallery

WoodLand Fairy

2010-07-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

The new illustration WoodLand Fairy is now on the galleries page, and is available as a poster and framed art print or on a bag of your choice!

New range of T-SHIRTS!!

2010-06-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

It's all about cute, funny and just very odd animal clothing! :-) You can get T-shirts, hoodies, kids stuff and girly T-shirts too. There are frogs, whales, tigers, pandas, elephants, koalas and strange hybrids such as the Zebrilla and Sharkadile!

As always top quality clothing at great prices :-) direct link here: http://dragon84.redbubble.com/sets/131112/works?page=1

10% off Clothing and framed prints!!

2010-06-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Yep sale time! Clothing including tees, kids clothing, hoodies and framed prints and canvas prints are 10% off till 9am June 23 AEST. Just head on over to the buy online page of my website: http://www.dragon84art.com/buyonline.php

New Mugs, Badges and mouse pads!

2010-06-05T04:16:00.000-07:00

New range of Norse, Celtic & Viking themed Mugs, Badges and mouse pads are now available from the buy online page of my website dragon84art.com

Unicorn Art!

2010-04-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

Unicorn Meadows is the newest addition to my gallery and is my first Unicorn illustration, but not the last!

Skull Dragon & Skade!

2010-03-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

Yep, new art in the gallery! Skull Dragon: a dark yet colorful illustration using some new techniques combining digital 3D sculpture and 2D painting, and Skade: A cool huntress from Norse mythology.

The galleries have changed!

2010-03-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

I have now rearranged the galleries for easier viewing, with all my Illustrations in one complete gallery displaying the best of my work to date. All my concept art now has it's own gallery too, with a few more additions including Among the Clouds and Demons that Follow.

09 gallery grows

2009-09-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

Wings on the Horizon plus Dragon Boat illustrations and a new wallpaper are online, hope you all like.

New short story!

2009-09-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

Dragon Boat is an illustrated fantasy adventure story, its free to read online, has been designed for easy reading on screen, so head on over to the writings page and enjoy!

Ouroboros + Crimson Girl

2009-07-16T04:16:00.000-07:00

Two new art works have been added to the 09 gallery: Ouroboros the world encompassing serpent and a portrait called Crimson girl. You can also grab a free Ouroboros wall paper in two sizes to decorate your desktop in scales and spikes!

Web page update

2009-07-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

An important update to this website has been made thanks to Dragon84's little brother, the free wallpapers are now in the galleries page, along with related links to other cool places on the net, plus customers can now browse products for sale right here at dragon84art.com

some new art will be here very soon...

2009 Gallery

2009-04-12T03:56:00.000-07:00

The 09 Gallery is up and with three new art works and more to come soon!

New art for sale!

2009-01-29T01:51:00.000-08:00

Two new art works are up for sale! The Dragon "Long Tail" is available as a poster or if your looking for a new skate board why not get one with a cool dragon on it? Half man half Demon "Tiefling" is also up for sale as a poster. Both new art works will be the first to make up the 2009 gallery coming soon to dragon84art.com

And remember all posters come in your choice of quality papers, canvas, or frames suitable for anybody's budget!

More art for sale!

2009-01-28T01:39:00.000-08:00

Posters of Tree Man and Gothic Rose are available in various sizes framed or unframed. Plus Gothic Rose is also available as stickers, badge, key chain and mouse pad!

Art For Sale!

2008-12-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

Greetings and welcome to my updated website, with a new and improved look, and also this news feed! But most exiting of all is that I now have art for sale as posters and all sorts of other merchandise, with a lot more on its way! just head over to the where to buy page!