APR/MAY Challenge - Dragons!

[icedragonj]

CHARIZARD IS A DRAGON

Well one of charizard's mega evolutions is dragon type, so even game freak agrees (to an extent)

[arkani]

Charizard is totally a dragon, mega typing or not.

Also - Ooh! A project that i'm doing can be used for this I just painted the aida a barely blue and slightly glittery colour. Because come on, glitter.

[kuja.girl]

Things have been crazy at work lately so I've been kind of staying quiet on the board because I've been burned out but...
ERMAHGAWD! DWRAGONS!

So yeah, I'm going to have to do something with this... I'm glad it's a two month challenge :D

[blackmageheart]

Well one of charizard's mega evolutions is dragon type, so even game freak agrees (to an extent)

I think I remember reading somewhere that due to the restrictions of making Pokemon on a Game Boy, they [Game Freak] could only assign two types. And I also remember Dragon type being strong against most of the other types (which was why they introduced Fairy, I believe) so they probably thought "hey, we're not making one of the starter 'mon evolutions a supreme badass by giving it Fire/Dragon, let's stick with Fire/Flying for just now" or something along those lines.
And, if memory serves, only one of the Mega Charizards is actually Fire/Dragon while the other one remains Fire/Flying.

Charizard is totally a dragon, mega typing or not.

Damn straight! I think Bulbapedia described it as "draconic", so yeah. Anyway, for me and this challenge, type is not even a consideration! A dragon is a dragon.

[mystikdreamer]

Lati@s

Lati@s.jpg (66.29 KiB) Viewed 4101 times

Here's my entry, I finshed it last night! It's so cute, I gotta figure out something fun to do with it now. [/color]

[TigerLily]

Welp, I finally got some pictures of my finished dragons. The lighting was not so great, so the pictures are a little fuzzy. Sorry about that. (Also, because of the lighting, Viserion looks really yellow and white, but he's actually cream and gold.)

Here's a little group shot of the three together. It almost looks like Drogon is trying to hug the other two.


I also took a few solo pictures of them just standing on their own. Again, sorry for the bleh quality shots.

Another sort of group shot.

Spoiler

Rhaegal

Spoiler

Viserion

Spoiler

Drogon

Spoiler

I have another dragon that I want to make, but I don't know if I'm going to have enough yarn to do it or not. Even if I don't get it done for this challenge I will probably make it sometime soon anyway for my collection.

[CraftySasha]

I definitely have a great idea for this challenge. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have time to make it. I still need to finish up my current project which may take me a couple weeks. If I have the time, though, I definitely will be entering!

[Firehawke]

Love the latest entries!

Mine is done...just need to take some pics! Hope to post them come the end of the week!

[Miss Clawful]

Firest entry done! A whole month to get the rest (not enough time).

Immortal - wizard vs. dragon



without flash (but shaky hands)


PATTERN:
196x238 pixels = 14"x17"


MATERIAL:
Black Aida (14ct)

COLORS (DMC):
3021 - Very Dark Brown Gray
3011 - Dark Khaki Green
371 - Mustard

3777 - Very Dark Terra Cotta
451 - Dark Shell Gray
415 - Pearl Gray

414 - Dark Steel Gray
413 - Dark Pewter Gray

total colors: 8

DATE/TIME:
Started stitching: April 4th 2013
Finished stitching: April 29th 2014
6960 minutes = 116 hours

STITCHES:
11866

PROGRESS LOG:

Spoiler

4/4/2013
9:45pm-10:45pm
11:20pm-11:50pm

=90 minutes

4/5/2014
4:55pm-6:15pm

=80 minutes

4/6/2014
1:15am-3:45am
4:15am-4:40am
5:00am-5:30am
11:30am-2:00pm
3:15pm-4:45pm
5:50pm-7:30pm
9:05pm-10:35pm

=635 minutes

4/7/2014
3:10pm-5:25pm
6:15pm-9:15pm
11:00pm-12:00am

=375 minutes

4/8/2014
12:00am-12:30am
9:45am-11:20am
1:30pm-3:40pm
5:40pm-7:20pm
8:55pm-11:10pm

=490 minutes

4/9/2014
1:15pm-2:15pm
3:00pm-4:15pm
8:10pm-8:50pm
9:00pm-9:15pm
9:55pm-10:10pm

=205 minutes

4/10/2014
3:15pm-4:15pm
6:10pm-7:10pm
8:25pm-9:30pm

=185 minutes

4/11/2014
4:35pm-6:40pm
8:30pm-9:15pm

=170 minutes

4/12/2014
3:20pm-4:10pm
9:50pm-12:00am - got very dark brown gray done on dragon and all rock formations to the right of the one the wizard stands upon

=180 minutes
(total so far =2410 minutes =40 hours 10 minutes)

4/13/2014
12:30pm-2:05pm - got very dark terra cotta, dark shell gray, pearl gray done on amulet gleam, got very dark terra cotta, dark steel gray, dark pewter gray done on wizard
3:45pm-6:15pm
7:40pm-8:40pm

=305 minutes

4/14/2014
10:30am-12:00pm - got very dark brown gray on rock done that wizard stands upon
1:20pm-3:05pm
4:50pm-6:40pm
8:15pm-9:05pm
9:10pm-9:25pm

=370 minutes

4/15/2014
5:10pm-7:35pm
9:00pm-9:40pm

=185 minutes

4/16/2014
3:35pm-5:25pm
6:40pm-7:40pm
10:50pm-12:00am

=240 minutes

4/17/2014
12:25am-1:25am
6:00pm-6:25pm
7:35pm-8:15pm
8:20pm-9:50pm

=215 minutes

4/18/2014
10:00am-11:10am - all very dark brown gray done on rocks, all very dark terra cotta done on flame
4:40pm-6:15pm
6:55pm-7:40pm - got all pearl gray and dark shell gray done in flame (flame completed)

=210 minutes

4/19/2014
5:20pm-6:10pm
8:20pm-10:25pm

=175 minutes

4/20/2014
12:20am-1:10am
12:20pm-2:10pm
2:35pm-4:05pm
5:15pm-6:50pm
8:10pm-8:45pm
9:20pm-10:00pm

=420 minutes

4/21/2014
12:10pm-2:25pm
3:40pm-5:10pm
5:45pm-6:55pm
8:15pm-10:00pm
11:05pm-12:00am

=455 minutes

4/22/2014
8:35am-9:25am
10:55am-12:40pm
1:25pm-2:05pm
4:15pm-5:40pm - got dark khaki green and mustard done on wizard and dragon (both wizard and dragon completed!)
7:00pm-8:30pm

=370 minutes

4/23/2014
12:00am-12:40am
5:05pm-6:05pm
6:15pm-6:35pm
7:30pm-8:45pm
9:25pm-10:30pm

=260 minutes

4/24/2014
9:40pm-10:20pm
10:35pm-11:10pm
11:30pm-12:05am

=110 minutes

4/25/2014
4:05pm-5:20pm
7:30pm-8:10pm
8:40pm-9:15pm
10:15pm-11:55pm

=250 minutes

4/26/2014
4:00pm-4:45pm
5:40pm-6:50pm
9:50pm-11:05pm

=190 minutes

4/27/2014
12:15am-1:00am
1:15am-2:05am
2:20am-3:20am
11:50am-12:15pm
1:45pm-3:30pm
5:00pm-5:40pm
8:00pm-9:20pm
10:55pm-12:00am

=470 minutes

4/28/2014
8:50am-9:20am
8:00pm-9:00pm
9:15pm-10:15pm
11:20pm-12:00am

=190 minutes

4/29/2014
12:00am-12:35am
1:55am-3:00am
11:40am-12:20pm
12:30pm-1:00pm - got all dark khaki green done
1:15pm-2:05pm
3:35pm-4:50pm
6:30pm-7:00pm - got all mustard done (cross-stitch finally completed! Yay!!)

=325 minutes
(total so far =6960 minutes =116 hours)

NOTES:

Spoiler

This epic battle of wizard vs. dragon, magic against flames was just begging to be cross-stitched for the Sprite Stitch Dragon Challenge.

This scene is taken from the final battle in the NES game The Immortal. The evil wizard Mordamir (not seen in this image as he is actively engulfed in flames) stole a powerful amulet found by you earlier in the game, used it against you, attacking with bolts of lightning and using its power to control the dragon to attack as well. But with magic of your own you managed to fend off all attacks (Blink, Statue and Fire Protection spells), and using one final spell (Magnet spell) tore the amulet from Mordamir's clutches, reclaiming it. With the amulet no longer in his grasp the dragon turns on him instead. So, he is now feeling the heat of dragon breath. Moments after this image, the evil wizard's charred body topples over the edge, a rope comes down (from an ally made earlier in the game) and you climb up to a text ending.

When it had first been announced that this was going to be a dragon challenge I was ecstatic, because dragons are awesome and I had already had a lot of choices ready to go (with patterns of many dragons on the NES, SNES, Genesis, PC Engine, and Playstation). I wasn't certain about doing this one for The Immortal just yet (not for the challenge), I figured the monotony would bog it down for me, so much background and so much of the same colors, and that it'd take way too long anyway. Another thing is that I was still kind of uncertain whether to show the wizard Mordamir standing upon that rock pillar in the distance with the dragon's flames just about to strike him or full out flames and forget the evil wizard, he's history. Its obvious which I went with, full blaze, and final attack in the game.

I also had a screen shot of the Sega Genesis one and was torn between the two, but in the end for favoritism and more familiarity I did stick with the NES one (as the finished cross-stitch shows). Also, of the two, while the Genesis Immortal looks better graphically, what I liked better about the NES version is the darkness, and how further apart all the rocks are, and with how black that pit looks, you don't have a clue as to how deep it goes down. Also, the wizard being smaller, not so close up to the player makes the dragon appear so much larger.

Originally I had intended to do this one last, if I did it at all, but I need something extraordinary, epic, a classic battle scene of good vs. evil, it tells a story, not just a dragon against black background as many of my dragons would have been, so all others took a back seat, this has got to be stitched first, now. Better get to it, time is short. Besides, if I waited I'd probably been burnt out by the time I got to it and may have not had enough time to complete it.

Of coarse I did run into some difficulties, what huge project would be complete without any. Firstly the colors used in this game is not with the standard NES palette so I had to look for all new colors to stitch with, not from my presorted ones that I've had for most of my other projects. Also, even though this cross-stitch has fewer stitches than the Startropics one I had completed end of last year, the size of the material made it difficult to work with so it probably took a bit longer than it should have. And, with how scattered and sporadic everything is, there were several times I had to go back and stitch a pixel or few in that I had somehow missed stitching earlier when I had done that particular color, but thankfully missing them first time did not throw anything off in the picture. Only times I had to remove a lot of stitches was when I was testing colors with the dragon (but nothing too trying, not like what I ran into with the water in that Startropics one), tried several, eventually went back to the very first choice.

I had spent some time planning, trying to get a good estimate of how long it'd take me to complete it, as well as with how much time left over for the challenge that I would have to do each of the other choices and what order I'd stitch them in. Heck, I already have ziplock bags loaded with the colors for each dragon I may stitch so that I'd be ready. I figured this one should take me about 3 weeks, maybe a little longer, but one thing for certain is that I needed to have it done by the end of the month that I started so that I'd still have a whole month to work on the other ones (two more at least), and well, I just made it.

Thank goodness! Standing back to admire it... damn that is awesome! But boy am I glad its done. Whew. I think I need a day off from stitching.

[Shazbang]

Here's one I prepared earlier just in case I don't get time to do another one!
Incedentally, if anyone has any Smaug patterns (I wouldn't use them for challenges, just for myself) I'd be eternally grateful!

Spoiler

Charizard.jpeg (154.04 KiB) Viewed 4008 times