It's been quite a while since I last did a picture just for myself! This actually just started out as a bit of practice - trying as always to get even a bit better at anatomy (which seems to be quite the rabbit hole to descend). While I know I still have a very long way to go, I'm actually pretty pleased with how this piece came out. (I will admit that I cheated a bit by having an anatomy reference image open as I sketched.) I always end up fretting a bit about trying to give chest muscles to a dragon with chest plates. Trying to shape the plates to give the illusion of muscle looks tacky, so I ended up just tacitly omitting them entirely! I also never really intended to give Zael a loin-cloth, but leaving him with a random phallic bulge just looked weird, and didn't work with the idea I was going with. Who knows, maybe I'll do an alternate version without the cloth hiding anything...

Overall though, this is probably one of the more accurate pictures of Zael in terms of his details, markings and proportions, with just the right amount of muscle. From his pose, I'm imagining him standing guard over his brothers of the Night's Reach. Just...nobody still a hose into him, lest we betray that otherwise solitary stature. As always, constructive feedback is always appreciated!