The dragon on the rump is a good start.
Now here are some basics on heraldry:
Put the mini down and walk oh, twenty or so feet away.
Now, what color is it?
I\'m guessing blue, but maybe red or maybe purple. The point is the colors will blend together and that blue/black shield will be invisible (and not just because it\'s small).
To counter this effect of optics, the medieval artists set rules to heraldry.
The basic rule is never have a color next to another color or a metal next to a metal.
There are 5 colors (red, green, blue, black and purple) and two metals (yellow/gold and white/silver).
So the shield could be blue and white or blue and yellow or black and white or black and yellow but never black and blue or white and yellow.
Was this rule ever broken? Yes, lots of times. For example, the city of Lyon in France has a shield that is red on top and blue on bottom. But the symbols in the colors are metal: 3 gold rampant lions on the red top and 3 silver fleur-de-lis on the blue bottom. The king of Jerusalem had a gold cross on a silver shield.
But those are unusual exceptions.
Stick with the basics and your heraldic devices will look much cleaner and brighter and be more distinguishable on the table.
If you get really good you can move on to the furs, but I suggest sticking with colors and metals to begin with.
Next, to improve stick with a simple color scheme. Yours looks like blue and red, but you\'ve also got black...and white...and gold. All you\'ve left out is green and purple. Try to stick to two or three.
The rampant dragon is nice. What it needs next is some dimension. It should be a drawing of a dragon, not just a sillouette. So take your finest brush and get a little red paint in it. Extend the line of the belly down so that it cuts off the lifted right leg. Extend the line of the lower left leg to meet the belly line. Now the true medieval artist would have put a little pointy bit there for stylized male genitals.
Now draw the upper part of the left/lower arm across the chest. Try to make it larger. Remember, all of these are just thin line-drawing, no shading. (that can come when you are comfortable with line drawing)
Finally, give this guy an eye and claws. Medieval rampant beasts had red eyes and claws unless it wouldn\'t work - like here where the claws would be on a red background. In that case they used gold. So take a tiny bit of white paint on your smallest brush and put pinpoints just off the edge of your dragon\'s limbs. Then dot on top of those white dots with yellow or gold paint. Keep the eye red.
One last thing I\'d suggest is drawing in the webbing on the wings - very faintly.
If it\'s any help, check out the rampant lion I did on this guy\'s shoulder pad. I did a whole squad of these guys so I\'ve painted a lot of rampant lions.
Mushnik Space Marine
p.s. My painting and photo skills have improved since this guy so overlook that aspect
