Two Hearts and a Dragon- Part 1- The body of the beast

Hi Folks,

Welcome to this year´s last episode of Straight from the Desk!

Time to paint something massive once again... this time a proper Dragon (or technically a wyvern)!

As teased in the last post, this video marks the beginning of a small series of videos about the "Two Hearts and a Dragon" - model by Aradia Miniatures.

A true stunner, a full-blown dragon, with two riders and a rich treasure base- all in 75mm scale!!

The first video chapter is dealing with the body of the dragon,

we will discover all the steps it needs to create a wonderfully detailed, sharply rendered, yet organic large-scale model.

When I saw the first renders of this model I was already intrigued by the two characters on the top, you can really see their emotions.

But exploring the model further opened up a few questions, most important: What are the two doing here on the dragon, and what is their relation towards each other - I think this is one of the models out there that dont reveal everything by it´s own, you kind of need a bit more..

a background story:

The cold winter has descended on the island of Inis na Bhfiodhbhadh and a horde of barbarian orcs, used to fighting in the bitterly cold climate of the northern lands, have found access to the realm of the Little People, where elves, dwarves, and fairies guard treasures of all kinds, arcane artefacts, and ancient wisdom. After glorious resistance and heavy losses, the survivors of the Little People are forced to abandon their world and the treasures themselves to the barbarians: Grimnur will have to fly out of the millennial forest where he has always lived to ask for help from the Hyperboreans, an ancient and mysterious people living in the far north of the world - beyond the lands of the barbarians themselves. His inseparable and lovely Ayla did not want to abandon her lands, she fought to the last but could not survive the ferocity of the orcs. But like all the creatures of the Little People, Ayla also has her own magic: with no physical body, her etheric body as a magical creature survives in the middle realm, the one that unites the world of the living with that of the dead. With this, she can maintain slight contact with the world of the living (she sees, observes, enchants with her magic and whispers in the ear of the islanders but cannot be seen, or grasped), but only on the island: outside it, her magic has no effect, and if she tried to leave, his tenuous etheric body would dissolve like a ghost. She has become a guardian spirit of the island. So, as Grimnur prepares to leave for his long journey on his faithful Wyrmax - one of the wyverns that has cohabited with the little people since the mists of time -, Ayla gives him one last embrace... he cannot feel her beloved's touch, he cannot even see her, but he feels a presence, a distant voice, a warmth that warms his heart... «Could it be Ayla's spirit?» he wonders. Perhaps, he thinks. Yes, the gnome says, I must undertake this journey: for me, for the Little People, for Ayla!

I think there are many different ways how you could interpret this amazing model. It depends a little on what you imagine the two characters to be, and of course the colors you choose.

Stephano from Aradia suggested a classic red color scheme, but

when I saw the fae and the gnome on top I wanted to go more for something more nature-like, I envisioned the dragon in warmer green tones on the top with a shift to really cool green shades to the lower side.

This way I can use the light to focus the attention more towards the two riders. The transition to the cooler tones will help together with a few touches of snow on the base, to convey a winter atmosphere.

I also used plenty of cooler tones towards the bottom of the project.

The brightest highlight on the gold coins for example is a cool ice yellow and the rocks are done with plenty of blue, for both highlights and shadows.

I hope you like the result! Have fun watching it all come together!

Thanks for your support, and I hope you have a great start in to 2024!

If you are at the LVO in January make sure to say Hi!