Drogon the Dragon – a Sculpting Tutorial

In this guest post, Franziska Schaefer gives us the detailed instructions for reproducing her small sculpture of Drogon the dragon. Thanks, Franzi, for showing us how it was done! This is an incredibly detailed sculpture, and a real treasure. (Click on the images to see a larger version).

©2018 Franziska Schaefe

Making Drogon the Dragon

Some of you may know the series “Game of Thrones.” It’s based on a fantasy novel with knight and dragons and my aunt is a big fan of it.

So I thought she would be happy about a gift with connection to this series.

I searched the net and found many nice DIYs for dragon eggs. I tried and the outcome was pretty OK, but I had the feeling something was missing.

First I thought to place it in a nest or a treasure chest but then but then I had an idea: “What’s an egg without a dragon?”

My aunt likes “Drogon” the dark brown, black reddish dragon best, so I already made his egg (it has the same colour) and decided make him next.

But how?

I wanted an easy not expensive way to sculpt a dragon. Again I searched the net, I found many cool designs – but not practical for a beginner who doesn’t want to spend a fortune for materials at first try.

I searched till I found videos with Dan Reeder and his paper mache Dragons and they looked really great. So I did a research on paper mache and found Jonni’s site. Her technique with patterns caught my attention. For me, who never did anything like that, I thought it would be easier with some kind of skeleton as the basic design for guidance.

I decided to use Jonni’s way of using a pattern for the basic design and also her recipe for air dry clay for some modulations, the claws and horns. For the wings I tried Dan Reeders technique with cloth mache.

Making the Dragon Egg

Materials:

• 1x styrofoam egg (ca. 14-16cm)
• ca.500 drawing pins
• acrylic paint red, brown, terracotta, white, black
• acrylic effect paste
• brushes

I placed the first pin in the bottom middle of the egg and then placed the next pin slightly overlapping the first. I wanted to create a circle around the middle pin. Each pin should slightly overlap the pin “below” it and the one to the left of it. I continued in this way until I got to the top of the egg.

My lines got a little crooked, I didn’t want them to be symmetrically. In some DIY they use glue for the last pin to secure everything but I didn’t have to use glue. I used acrylic effect paste to crate rough surface on the bottom. I painted everything with dark red acrylic paint. I created a colour gradient from brown to red bottom to middle and black to red from top to middle. On the bottom I used the terracotta acrylic paint for highlighting rough surface.

Making the Eyes for the Dragon

Materials:

• 2x Raindrops (Acryl ca. Ø5mm)
• 2x printed picture of a dragon eye (ca. Ø5mm)
• dark red paint
• scissors
• glue
• brush

The photo on the left above is the finished eye glued to the head and fixed with toilet paper for brows and cheeks.

For the eyes I used raindrops made of Acryl Ø5 millimeter approximately and a picture of dragon eyes I modified to my needs.

After I had changed the picture of the eyes to my liking I printed it out. It has to have the size of the raindrops. Then I used a scissor to cut it out. With glue I fixed the eyes to the flat bottom of the raindrop (face to the top). I finished it with a drop of dark red paint on the back over the paper to fill the gap between the paper and the edge of the raindrops.

Sculpting Drogon the Dragon

Materials:

• cardboard
• newspaper
• Jonni’s Silky-Smooth Air-Dry Clay
• florist wire
• toilet paper
• acrylic -, paint, effect paste, effect crystal
• cotton wool ball (different sizes)
• print-out paper
• clear vanish
• styrofoam ball (different sizes)
• Elmer’s glue
• scissors, cutter knife
• tape
• flour (mixed with water)
• pencils, brushes

The first step was to draft a pattern; therefore I used one of my templates of the young “Drogon”.

At this point I didn’t know how I wanted his pose to be. So I was thinking about a way to make the basic design as flexible as possible.

I made some kind of ball joints to give the skeleton the flexibility I wanted. Then I connected everything with a strong yet flexible wire.

I wanted the dragon to link with the egg. In the end I decided to let him sit on the egg in a protective pose. When I made the dragon egg I had one Styrofoam egg left untouched, this I used for fixing the pose I wanted.

Note: Maybe I didn’t use the right tape. The grip of it wasn’t strong enough so I had to rush with making the first layer of paper mache.

I only did two or three layers of paper mache before I started with the wings. I did the layers after work so that between each layer it had a whole day to dry.

For the wings I used Dan Reeder´s technique with Cloth Mache. I soaked a piece of cloth in glue, mixed it with water and squeezed out the spare. After this I placed the cloth over the wires of the wings and pressed it on the shoulder. I used scissors to cut off some of the spare cloth and trimmed more carefully after it had dried.

Note: Because I wanted to save some money I mixed glue with water. Also I didn’t tape the wire of the wings. In the end there was no grip between Cloth Mache and wire. I had to tape the wire onto the Cloth Mache and covered everything with a thin layer of toilet paper. Afterwards I bought and read Dan Reeder’s “paper mache DRAGONS” as there was some more things I could have done better.

But after I finished the painting I thought the toilet paper gave a nice effect and it almost looked like some veins.

I wrapped tape round eight pieces of wire, four toes each foot. Then I taped four pieces together.

I pushed the spare wire of the feet into the leg wrapped everything with tape and one layer paper mache to connect them together.

With the paper mache still wet I set the dragon back on the egg and matched the feet and claws with the shape of the egg. After it had dried I made a second and third layer paper mache and did the same fitting as before.

I made some conceptual designs for the right position of the eyes and marked them with a point and glued the eyes to the head and fixed them with toilet paper for brows and cheeks. (See the eye section at the beginning of the post).

First I wanted to use the toilet paper only as basis for the paper mache Clay but I liked the uneven and rough texture and didn’t want to cover it.

The teeth and the tongue I made out of packaging material leftover from chopsticks. The ends are pressed together with a … profile that gives a realistic effect to tongue and teeth ridge also it´s firm and keeps the shape of turning it.

For the tongue put a taped piece of paper into the throat. I cut the tape into a triangle and only taped one side of the tongue to the throat. It was a bit difficult and I need use needles because my fingers couldn’t get in “Drogons” small mouth.

The teeth I glued outside of the head and laid paper mache over to make lips, jaw and buccinators. Next I used more paper mache and toilet paper to design the nostrils and face.

After working on the head I got back to the feet and claws now I used Jonni´s Air Dry Clay to cover the feet and claws and made some knuckles. I did this more than once and also worked with sandpaper to get it to my liking.

While working on the feet I worked on the dragon’s breast plates. I applied one small strip of folded print-out paper over the other as I worked my way from neck to tail. Every time I added a piece pinched it in the middle to

By finishing the dragon I realized that “Drogon” didn´t have this kind of breast plates so I covered most of them with paint.

I added Spikes, out of wire and tape and paper, on the top of the brows and made a thorn crown, out of packaging material and air dry clay, beginning on top of the head to tail.

Also I made more layers of toilet paper to make a smooth transition of the different kinds of material (clay, cloth, print-out paper, newspaper etc.). I added more spikes at the tail and claws at the wings and after covered everything with multiple layers of toilet paper it almost looked like a white dragon.

I started to paint the mouth and then everything else.

I don’t think there is much to say about painting because everyone has different kind of technique as long it works for you it’s fine. I worked with acrylic paint in different shades of brown, red, white and terracotta. I black washed it two times.

I also used acrylic effect paste, acrylic effect paint crystal and clear varnish for finish. The acrylic effect paint crystal gives off a nice wet effect to the eyes, throat and tongue.

I think I used a bit too much clear varnish over the body because it reflects too much light and also almost looked wet.

Note: Dan Reeder´s technique to cover the eyes with paint and later scrap it of is not working with eyes made of Acryl.

To get an idea of “Drogons” size here you see the dragon sitting on a normal coffee cup (before I used the clear varnish).

Making the fire of a dragon

Material:

• 3x sheets (ca. A4) plastic packaging material
• 1x plastic cup
• spray cans (red, yellow)
• hot air gun
• potted cup without handle (for premoulding)
• scissors

For the Fire I used some plastic packaging material, a potted cup without handle, a plastic cup of the same size, spray cans red and yellow and a hot air gun.

I cut three sheets of the plastic packaging material and cut the edges in a fire like design.

After this I molded the sheets around the potted cup with the hot air gun.

I let it cool down to use spray cans for colouring. The dominant colour in a flame changes with temperature. Near the base, where most burning occurs, the fire is white, or yellow. Above the yellow region, the color changes to orange, which is cooler, then red, which is cooler still.

I placed the plastic cup in the premoulded middle and cut off the top till it was not visible anymore. I used the hot air gun to debur the sharp edges of the plastic cup and coloured them as well.

In the end I placed the egg onto the plastic cup and the dragon on top of the egg.

Note: Colouring the plastic packaging material I wouldn’t do next time because the paint is peeling off too easy. Maybe I would use already coloured PVC sheet.

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• Cindy’s giant dragon – full tutorial
• Adding wings to a really big dragon sculpture
• How to make a paper mache dragon