How to Design a Dramatic Winged Dragon with Gimp

Create a fantasy image with the Gimp. In this tutorial, we will be taking a picture of a baby iguana and another picture of a bat and we will combine them to be a full-fledged dragon. This tutorial is based off of a Photoshop tutorial from PSDTuts by Alvaro Guzman. I’ve made another tutorial before like this one, but for some odd reason it disappeared off the face of the earth and I haven’t been able to find it. Anyway, let’s get started!

Here is what we will be making. You can click it to view it full size.

Step 1

First, we need to collect some stock photos. Head on over to Stock.xchng and grab this photo of a castle.Create a new canvas that is no smaller than 1440×900 pixels. We want something rather large to work with so that we have plenty of room to mess around. Open the image of the castle as a new layer onto the canvas. Name the new layer “castle.” Get out the eyedropper tool and select a sample color of the sky.

Create a new transparent layer below the castle layer. Fill the layerwith color #EAEFF5. Merge the castle layer with this layer. Use the clone stamp tool and get rid of the ugly little line left over. Renamethe layer “castle.”

Step 2

Now we will add in the main part of our dragon. Head on over to here and download the image of the iguana.

Open it as a new layer on our canvas. Rename the layer to “iguana.”
Make the image smaller (if needed) and move it above the castle.

Step 3

Select the iguana layer and bring down its opacity to about 52%. Resize the picture while trying to fit the iguana’s legs over the castle.

Afterward, extract the iguana from the background. You can do this multiple ways. I recommend using the paths tool.

Step 4

Now let’s cut off that gizzard looking thing and smooth out the soon-to-be dragon’s face. Get out the paths tool, lasso tool, whatever you use to render. Cut off the gizzard. After you have done that, locate the Select tool and make a rectangular selection around the iguana’s head. Go to Filters > Distort > Iwarp. Use the move function with the settings listed in the picture. Shape the iguana’s head similar to what I have done. It’ll take some work, but play around with brush sizes, etc and you will get it.

Step 5

The Iwarp has made our image a bit blurry, so get out the sharpen tool and lightly sharpen some of the areas around the nose.

Step 6

Now we will add our wings.Go ahead and download this photo of a bat and open it as a new layer on your canvas.Go ahead and extract the wing from the background. Be sure to leave a little of the bat’s body attached as well as we will be needing it.

Step 7

Next we will place the wing on the dragon. While doing this, I realized that I needed more room at the top so that the wing would fit in without being cut off. To fix this, Go to Image > Canvas Size.

Deactivate the little chain image so that proportions ARE NOT
constrained. Enlarge the height from 900 pixels to about 1200. Drag the
image on the bottom of the dialog to the bottom of the box and click ok.

Select the castle layer and go to Layer > Boundary to Image Size. Do the same with the background layer. Select the castle layer. Get out the eyedropper tool and pick a color from the edge of the top of the sky. Fill in the background layer with this color. Merge this layer and the castle layer. Run the clone stamp tool over the sky to give it a few clouds. Select the wing layer and go to Layer > Transform > Flip Horizontal.

Step 8

Now we will finally add in the wing. Using a combination of the scale tool, rotate tool, and the select tool, position the wing over the dragon like I have below. Right click the wing layer and add a layer mask. Choose full opacity. Use a black brush on the layer mask to
“erase” some of the extra wing.

Step 9

Now let’s change the wing’s hue by going to Colors > Colorize. Use 114 for the hue, 44 for the saturation, and 3 for the lightness. Click ok.

Step 10

Next, use a combination of small white or black brushes on the layer mask to attach the wing to the body even more so.

Step 11

Duplicate the wing layer and place it behind all other layers with the exception being the castle/background layer. Scale the wing to make it a tiny bit smaller. Rotate it a tiny bit if necessary.

Step 12

Now we need to get rid of that extra bones showing on the second wing. Use the clone tool to do this.

Step 13

Burn the inside of the second wing a little with the burn tool. Select the lizard’s layer and go to Colors > Hue/Saturation. Make the dragon’s green match that of the green on the wings. Merge the dragon and wing layers. Rename the layer “dragon.” Move the dragon down onto the castle a little more.

Step 14

Let’s sharpen up the hands. Get out the sharpen tool and run it over the front hand.

Step 15

Now for an important step. Get out the lasso tool and copy a big portion of the top of the castle where the dragon is. Paste it over the dragon. Name this new layer “top castle.” Use the Magic Wand tool to select the sky that is still covering the dragon. Go to Select > Feather. Feather the selection by 2 pixels. Delete. Now use the eraser
tool to erase some of the parts of the castle that are covering the dragon. Try to create a natural effect.

Step 16

We need to inflate the dragon’s hand a little bit. Take the rectangular
selection tool and select around the hand. Go to Filters > Iwarp. Set the Deform Mode to Grow. Set the brush radius to 31 and the deform amount to 0.07. Be sure the bilinear box is checked. Apply the brush to the hand and click ok.