For the next leg of Arath's journey, I'm being a bit more intentional about stocking the dungeon he'll be exploring. I'm going to have some random encounter tables to give the place a little more structure. I want him to fight a dragon, but he's only level 2. I've always used salamanders as a 'poor man's dragon', and this is no exception. I always liked these guys - ever since I first saw fire and ice salamanders in the 1983 blue box expert rules, they've been a staple in my adventures.
I decided to show you my drawing process. This took me a total of a bit more than half an hour. I work entirely in Paint. I use the pencil tool (thickest setting) to do the original sketch in the ugly bright lime green (my eye sees that best against the black), and then to draw over in black. I go back to the black with the curve line tool (thickest setting) to give weight to the lines. I always admired how other inkers could get such even line weights, and I rarely could - this tool solves the problem for me. I get rid of the green (Paint only has one layer, so I have to fill with green, then fill with white, then fill with green, then fill with white, until I clean out all of the green). Then I start adding shadows, going from dark to light - I do a layer of solid blacks, then dark grey, then medium grey, then light gray. Finally I go back with the pencil tool and add some noodling to give the whole thing a little more texture.
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