The Making of Smaug ( 's little brother )

So, I had a friend ask me to draw her something for a Dungeons and Dragon group she's part of over the Christmas holiday. She wanted to give presents to her group in the form of shirts. I haven't ever designed or drawn requests that much before so this was a little daunting just because it's that whole, it's my friend it has be awesome. So needless to say I busted out my drawing paper and pencils and drew a rough sketch:

 Yep that's him, in all  his pencily glory.You'll notice I don't have any shadows or highlight on him but he came out cuter than I'd actually thought he would. 

So then I took it into Illustrator and started doing the basic outline and base colors: 

 

He's pretty damn flat looking, but hey I managed to get a 12 sided die in there! Yeah...I totally Photoshopped one into his hands and then drew over him but if you don't tell I won't.

 And here he is in his final render. The colors are definitely more vibrant than they were. I added highlights and shadows, changed the shape of his glasses so he looked a bit more 1970's groovy, fixed his wings up, and threw some gems into his pile o' gold. The hardest part about doing him was remembering all the areas shadows and highlights should go and making them blend in. It's really funny how something that most people think is a small detail can make or break a picture. 

Anyhow I'm pretty happy with him. I think he's kinda cute.