This week I started on my image for April. For this I have chosen to create an image of St George and the Dragon as I felt it would be interesting to create and also quite a unique idea. I decided to start with the dragons body and began by drawing a capsule shape and used the soft selection tool to edit it into the shape I wanted. It took a while to do this as I struggled to get the shape symmetrical and keep all the edges smooth, but eventually I elongated parts of the capsule into a suitable shape.
I then drew a cylinder to create the top part of the neck. I made the radius of this the same as the radius at the top of the cone. I applied a much greater bend to the top section of the neck and chose a slightly different direction. I did have a bit of trouble lining the two parts of the neck up, but after a while I managed to do this and am very pleased with the results.
The next stage was to add a head to the dragon. I used a sphere for this, although I was not happy to leave it like this. Due to this I then edited it to make it flatter and rotated it before putting it in place.
After this I tried to create the dragon’s legs. As I wanted there to be a bend in the leg I decided to do it in sections rather than using the bend modifier as I felt this would create a better effect. I have therefore worked on three parts; the foot, bottom and top of the leg. I started with the upper part of one of the legs and to do this I used a cone so I could show the narrowing in the leg width. I made the radius of the bottom circle slightly smaller than the top circle to create this. I then used a cylinder to create the bottom half of the leg. I made sure that the radius was the same as the radius of the base of the cone so the leg looked like it was one. For the foot I used a sphere and flattened it as this technique worked well for the head.
To try to make the creature look fiercer I added claws to the foot. For this I again used the cone from the create toolbar to create a long, pointed claw. I aligned the claw with the foot and when I was pleased with its shape and length I duplicated it and placed them around the foot at the points which I felt were most suitable. 
At this point I was quite disappointed with how the joints between the parts of the leg looked as it was obvious that I had pieced several objects together. Due to this I used two spheres to cover the areas where the joins were. The leg now looks much better, even though the joints are still quite bold. I hope that when I apply a consistent colour and texture to the dragon this will merge in well. Currently I am quite pleased with how the leg looks. 
Once I completed one leg I duplicated it and re-arranged the sections on the other side of the body.
Lastly I started to work on the arms. For this I used a cone for the top part and a cylinder for the bottom part. I drew a cone with a height of 24.227, the top radius of 6.267 and the bottom radius of 4.11. For the bottom of the arm the cylinder’s radius was 4.11 with the length of 18.224. Initially I was quite pleased with the outcome of these so far, but now I have looked at then again I feel more work is needed as currently they are too long.
I now need to continue with this by adding the dragon's wings, a face and by creating the figure of St George.
Next I worked on creating the tail of the dragon. For this I chose to use a cone and selected bend from the modifier list. I applied a bend along the z axis as this created the curve I wanted for the cone. I chose to use a bend angle of 129.5 as it curved around the edge of the stage well. Once I had applied a bend the length of the tail appeared to be too short in comparison to the body and so I increased the length of the cone.
Afterwards I decided to work on the neck. I decided to do this in two parts as I wanted to include different thicknesses along the neck as well as two different bends which went in different directions. I started with the section closest to the body. I chose to use a cone to do this so that the base was slightly wider than the top. I then made the shape into an editable poly and applied a bend of a 40.5 angle and in a direction of 48.5 so the shape was twisted forward slightly.
Afterwards I decided to work on the neck. I decided to do this in two parts as I wanted to include different thicknesses along the neck as well as two different bends which went in different directions. I started with the section closest to the body. I chose to use a cone to do this so that the base was slightly wider than the top. I then made the shape into an editable poly and applied a bend of a 40.5 angle and in a direction of 48.5 so the shape was twisted forward slightly.I then drew a cylinder to create the top part of the neck. I made the radius of this the same as the radius at the top of the cone. I applied a much greater bend to the top section of the neck and chose a slightly different direction. I did have a bit of trouble lining the two parts of the neck up, but after a while I managed to do this and am very pleased with the results.The next stage was to add a head to the dragon. I used a sphere for this, although I was not happy to leave it like this. Due to this I then edited it to make it flatter and rotated it before putting it in place.After this I tried to create the dragon’s legs. As I wanted there to be a bend in the leg I decided to do it in sections rather than using the bend modifier as I felt this would create a better effect. I have therefore worked on three parts; the foot, bottom and top of the leg. I started with the upper part of one of the legs and to do this I used a cone so I could show the narrowing in the leg width. I made the radius of the bottom circle slightly smaller than the top circle to create this. I then used a cylinder to create the bottom half of the leg. I made sure that the radius was the same as the radius of the base of the cone so the leg looked like it was one. For the foot I used a sphere and flattened it as this technique worked well for the head.To try to make the creature look fiercer I added claws to the foot. For this I again used the cone from the create toolbar to create a long, pointed claw. I aligned the claw with the foot and when I was pleased with its shape and length I duplicated it and placed them around the foot at the points which I felt were most suitable. At this point I was quite disappointed with how the joints between the parts of the leg looked as it was obvious that I had pieced several objects together. Due to this I used two spheres to cover the areas where the joins were. The leg now looks much better, even though the joints are still quite bold. I hope that when I apply a consistent colour and texture to the dragon this will merge in well. Currently I am quite pleased with how the leg looks.Once I completed one leg I duplicated it and re-arranged the sections on the other side of the body. Lastly I started to work on the arms. For this I used a cone for the top part and a cylinder for the bottom part. I drew a cone with a height of 24.227, the top radius of 6.267 and the bottom radius of 4.11. For the bottom of the arm the cylinder’s radius was 4.11 with the length of 18.224. Initially I was quite pleased with the outcome of these so far, but now I have looked at then again I feel more work is needed as currently they are too long.I now need to continue with this by adding the dragon's wings, a face and by creating the figure of St George.
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