An original How to Train Your Dragon design DeviantArt hired me to draw back in 2019 that I never ended up posting I think. (arttag) - ThreadSky

saintdane2579.bsky.social•188 days ago

“Hey Spyro how’s that Skooma I brought you from the game studio next doo- OH SWEET HEAVENS!!!”

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aethyrdawn.bsky.social•188 days ago

This is amazing!

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aethyrdawn.bsky.social•188 days ago

Also I swore I was following you here—I remember loving your paleoart from DA back in 2012ish.
Fixed that now. :)

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zazb.bsky.social•188 days ago

I never saw this one before, it's absolutely lovely!

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guyn.io•188 days ago

Your big scaled creature art is just immaculate, this is awesome.

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kiwifruitbird.bsky.social•188 days ago

RJ This came out great!!

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noania.bsky.social•188 days ago

Kinda reminds me of Spyro for some reason

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zackonline.bsky.social•188 days ago

I like him! He’s scrungly

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monkium.bsky.social•188 days ago

Chic.

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cueueue.bsky.social•188 days ago

Your stuff always blows me away!! Absolutely amazing!

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pat0deagua.bsky.social•188 days ago

for one moment i tought it was spyro

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guiz.bsky.social•188 days ago

he reminds me of spyro a lot, rj!

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grimmferno.bsky.social•188 days ago

The rendering came through rather nicely. I really like this design! 💀✨

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misfortuneee.bsky.social•188 days ago

Ah this is so cool!!

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devinellekurtz.bsky.social•188 days ago

Really love the way you handled saturation here. & the environment. Feels real

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

Grey and overcast doesn’t have to look cheap and fake like Hollywood keeps trying to tell us it does 😎

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thudnfer.bsky.social•188 days ago

This Spyro redesign looks weird as hell

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cjramirezart.bsky.social•185 days ago

Giving me Spyro vibes! 💜💛

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kitsteele.com•188 days ago

I love the subsurface scatter in the wing membranes! That environment looks nice and ominous, too.

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leonardowyrnist.bsky.social•188 days ago

This one is so cool, i love the way you do texture and scales <3

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torekdva.bsky.social•188 days ago

It looks freaking gnarly and I love it

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tomozaurus.bsky.social•188 days ago

Too bad they decided to lean 100% into sucking ass

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

Between them and Twitter, it’s been a rough 5 years for places I used like leaning 100% into sucking ass

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tomozaurus.bsky.social•188 days ago

Well I suppose DA at least gave you the option to talk them out of it, so you can't say you didn't try

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fimbry.bsky.social•188 days ago

Oh this is fantastic. You really got the style's shapes down.

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vznatan.bsky.social•133 days ago

📌

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hanyangng.bsky.social•188 days ago

Cool! But..DeviantArt hires people?

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

They used to. They would hire artists from the community to make promotional artwork for various campaigns they would run.

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hanyangng.bsky.social•188 days ago

Oh wow that's cool!

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breebird33.bsky.social•188 days ago

OH what a fun design!!!

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sky-the-thunder.bsky.social•188 days ago

Looks like it spits acid.
... and then lets out a cackling laugh while watching the damage it did.

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milovetic.bsky.social•188 days ago

I thought this was your take on Spyro (like you did when you made those realistic Pokémon)

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mhurgle.bsky.social•187 days ago

Makes me think about the Behemoths you hunt in Dauntless...
(lowkey want to boot the game up and hunt some now...)

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bethanvalerious.bsky.social•188 days ago

lmao not the podcasts

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lespudmann.bsky.social•188 days ago

the design is so sick omg!!! and the colors fits perfect!

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rhiow.vtubers.social•188 days ago

Spyro is that you

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

spyro if he was radicalized by twitch streamers

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rhiow.vtubers.social•188 days ago

I feel attacked but also this is truth

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ghazarban.bsky.social•188 days ago

It never occurred to me that How to Train your dragon had cohesive unique designs until I saw this and immediately knew for what it was even though it was never released

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ferisae.bsky.social•188 days ago

This looks super cool, the use of yellow is so striking!

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dominickvanderhoff.bsky.social•188 days ago

the scales and shapes fit the films style so well!

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jixii.bsky.social•188 days ago

Oh DeviantArt how you’ve changed.

Sick art tho!!

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

a sad reminder of the way things used to be cool

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poronyos.bsky.social•188 days ago

That is Spyro, right? :D

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destineyforce.bsky.social•188 days ago

😎😎

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michaelg3d.bsky.social•188 days ago

This is just amazing 😍

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oddtervt.bsky.social•188 days ago

Spyro when he's sick of Ripto's bullsh*t

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kezrek.bsky.social•188 days ago

Hah tight!! I've always liked the exaggerated shapes of HTTYD dragon designs and this nails it.

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scyrel.bsky.social•188 days ago

Oh, that's fucking cool, I missed this.

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kora124.bsky.social•188 days ago

Were you by chance thinking of Alatreon from Monster Hunter while drawing this?

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rj-palmer.com•187 days ago

Nope

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reallywendi.bsky.social•188 days ago

Did you come up with a classification for it too?

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

nope

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reallywendi.bsky.social•188 days ago

Aw

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

I do still rather like the way the scales came out on this fella despite its age

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bigstyleart.bsky.social•188 days ago

Wow!

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teradiamart.bsky.social•188 days ago

Are the scales hand-drawn on this one like on your recent works?? The level of detail is crazy!!!!!!

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

hand drawn yes but I used a bevel emboss workflow to establish a form buildup on them

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chutkat.bsky.social•188 days ago

Oooo I love the blue shimmer detail!

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savagelucy42.bsky.social•188 days ago

Wow at the shading. I thought this was a sculpture or something.

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

Oh yeah lol I forgot I drew all the important scales by hand on this

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vverner.bsky.social•188 days ago

So smooth 😍

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huemourless.bsky.social•188 days ago

Just got carpal tunnel looking at this. impressive tho good stuff

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kingsneak.bsky.social•188 days ago

I NEED to know how long this took you

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

21 hours for the whole piece

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theartofgreene.bsky.social•188 days ago

YES! So glad I'm not the only one. I always love drawing scales by hand, it just feels better that way.

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runtzel.bsky.social•188 days ago

Aw hell yeah those spines, AND SCALES and TEETH - awesome coloring too

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chromedollar.bsky.social•188 days ago

there's an alternative?

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

Yes

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chromedollar.bsky.social•188 days ago

if i ask really nicely, will you give me a hint?

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rj-palmer.com•187 days ago

You can use a scale brush, a scale grid warped into place, photo textures, etc. there are many ways to do scales without drawing them individually by hand

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luvianblue.bsky.social•187 days ago

I was about to ask what technique you used for the scales on this since I know you've gone through a few techniques over the years, but by hand? Dang, really impressive.

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notsomeloncholy.bsky.social•188 days ago

By HAND

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brynnmetheney.bsky.social•188 days ago

Love this, RJ!

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

Thank you Brynn!!

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cayfoley.bsky.social•185 days ago

I was zooming in on the painting wondering exactly that. Beautiful !!

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2ghosts.bsky.social•188 days ago

BY HAND....this level of patience 😭😭😭

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menacingmarsh.bsky.social•188 days ago

What brushes do you use for these textures? Really like the horn scale’s highlights in particular

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

those bits are some derivation of greg rutkowski brushes

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forgingmeanings.bsky.social•188 days ago

oh wow dude. i love this one

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itskleine.com•188 days ago

So cool 🥹

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halfnorthern.co.uk•188 days ago

omg i love this

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gerarddraws.bsky.social•188 days ago

Such an amazing design! I really like the wing shape!

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partydemoness.bsky.social•188 days ago

"The only thing more deadly than his venom is his taste in podcasts." HA

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

this guy is a joe rogan listener but only started because he liked what he was saying about ivermectin

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ashes.bsky.social•188 days ago

Those colors are great!

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amberbladejones.bsky.social•188 days ago

This colors are siiicccccckkk, you did a really bold color scheme but balanced it so well!

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rj-palmer.com•188 days ago

purple and yellow is definitely my favorite of the complementary color combos to play with in design

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redochreanima.bsky.social•188 days ago

You would've been perfect for the How to Train Your Dragon live-action movie, even if they kind of neutered you like Nintendo and the studios did with you on Detective Pikachu..

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redochreanima.bsky.social•188 days ago

Your realism-based approach, to say, illustrating your realistic Pokémon series and your Monster Hunter one-shot art pieces might've actually completely vibed with the in-lore 'dragonology' of 'How to Train Your Dragon'

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redochreanima.bsky.social•188 days ago

You could've even added on to the Hiccup dragonology-izing that was in the first movie..

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laur-rants.bsky.social•188 days ago

wild to think in 2019 devart was willing to hire you to design this, and now they'd rather sell you work out to the nearest ai machine for a corn chip. Looks awesome but man, the way times changed with that site.

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