Dragons and drawing mistakes

Hey Guys. Little extra blog today. Thought this would be good for you guys to see.

Alot of artists will only show work they think has gone well SO i thought people would be interested in seeing my mistakes and how ive worked through them. 

So, this was my first attempt at drawing this dragon. I had a CGI dinosaur called a dracorex for reference material.

after lining out the basic shape i tried to customise it a little so it wasnt a total copy of the dinosaur using reptile references

I went on a short break. When i come back i thought it looked like a friggin' sock puppet!! haha 

So i started again.

 Then the above happened (sorry no the best imagery but you can click it to make it bigger) I feel like the embellishment was forced (the horns) and really dont work. Its mouth it far too tiny for a traditional dragon. Upon researching dragorex, it is a herbivore. So it doesnt need a big mouth. Although it looks dragonlike, it prob wasnt the best reference material for a dragon. And now the point im getting at:

This is the third attempt. Yes i am not happen with the scales but i was practising on drawing scales. The scales dont matter too much anyway as this will be scanned and repainted up in photoshop eventually  so the scales you see now you wont see anymore.
You may notice that the shape of the head has totally changedthis is because i chose my reference pic.
I didnt pick i reptile
my reference pic was a an eel species. Unfortunatly the image itself is off a dead specimen in formaldahyde. So i cant identify the species and the person who originally posted it ddint specify the species! (grr! so if anyone can identify that for me itd be appreciated, drop me a comment or something. I hate not know lol)
Heres the reference pic:

Can you see why i picked it to help me draw a dragon? :) Be awsome to see your opinions so please chat to me about it
By posting this blog i am not saying this is my end result and im happy about it. my point is you dont always have to use the most obvious thing to help with your drawing. Look at everything, see the potential in things. Use your minds eye when looking at anmals and subject matter. Make the "draw what you see"thing on a whole knew level. You need to take the time and stare .... ;)

Hope this helps and get you thinking
Peace
Menja X

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