"The Black Gryphon" by Halley Orion Ross

ahaha! this is very good. i was thinking it was Skandranon from the mage wars when i saw the title, but i guess not. this is good none the less!

Kyooooot! I like the shading. Does he have a name?

The dark shading on this is fantastic. I really do like the way you do wings. Just a question: What is the crest in the bottom left corner?

Nifty! The anatomy's great, those hind legs are keeeen... many artists I know mess up the joints back there. You've done a fantastic job, and no, I'm not just being nice, I mean it! Great shading job, too... black can be hell to shade properly. Hope to see more gryphons soon!

Ah, I've got one ... a critique as you requested:
Well, it is great how it is and doesn't even need a background at all, but, in Photoshop ... if you duplicate the griffin and delete the white background on both copies and then put the copy layer underneath the original(you can always add an all white background layer) The next steps are to make the copy into a shadow: Use Gaussian Blur and make it low contrast and darker ... Then fade its percent of visibility ... transform the selection to make it appear like a shadow.
If that was too easy, sorry, this is only the second piece of yours I've seen. If that is too hard, sorry, I breath Photoshop ... I will gladly e-mail a how to plus some of my tricks, just ask.

Anyway, the nice cast shadow effect will make it look like it is not floating in a void.

Thanks this is the first gryphon I have found that lookes good.

I was also thinking it was Skandranon, like Julie. I'm reading that book right now, and a lot of my inspiration comes from the sketches on the inside pages.

<br><br>I can sympathize with your scanning problem, I hate how it takes texture and color depth right out. Good job, though!

How do you do the wings, front legs, and head so well? When I try that I end up with no eraser left, and I stilldon't have a good Picture! lol