General Discussion

Just what it says on the tin! I'm taking an art class this year, and as we're required to turn in a few sketches every once in a while, I decided that I'd really like to primarily focus on learning how to draw dragons. Alas, I... have little experience accurately drawing dragons and would love some help getting started. Any tips are very much appreciated! Thank you!

[img]http://i.imgur.com/L5Nllxk.png[/img] [font=times new roman][size=5][color=#4d1f00]I[/color][/size][size=4][color=#803300] don't have much time rn to give an in-depth response, but I have a few tips! Feel free to PM me if you need some dragon-drawing help later. Mainly: do a lot of studies of reptiles - draw over screenshots if you have to. Seriously, just understanding how snouts look from different angles and what sort of proportions you can play with will bring you miles ahead in the dragon-drawing department. Feel free to draw over fantasy/CGI dragons as well (I recommend HTTYD and Game of Thrones for some varied designs). Dragons, being fantasy (though I vehemently insist otherwise) mean that you can do whatever you want with their proportions. Cartoony, realistic, somewhere in-between, or whatever else you want! Nobody can tell you otherwise. Really, when it comes to 'accurately drawing dragons' it depends on what kind of accuracy you're going for because of the reason stated above. If you could go into a little more depth, that'd help a lot! @Kairo In any case, best of luck with drawing, and I'm always open to give critique!

@Kairo

I actually learned how to draw dragons from one of Undel's books ROFL. I've since developed my own techniques but some of hers have stuck around (she's fond of using base lines she calls "lines of motion" to form her poses, which I find to be particularly helpful). Everyone has a slightly different style and approach because there's no right or wrong way to draw a dragon. Personally, I spent a lot of time studying horse and dog anatomy and sort of blended the two after a while. But I've also seen a lot of art that's obviously based on other animals: cats and bipedal dinosaurs are common references as well.

For posing, you'll want to pick some animal to base your dragon off of. You can mash several but I would stick with one for right now. I suggest dogs because they're relatively simple, and many breeds have short hair and tight skin so you can clearly see the muscle structure. Their legs are also quite easy (for me at least) to morph into dragon legs by exaggerating the muscles and adding raptor feet. (I suggest horses for the neck and head anatomy because of the similar proportions and feature placement. If you're more familiar with big carnivorous dinosaurs like T-rexes you can look at them instead.)

Draw rough pose sketches based on references and once you feel comfortable, you can start trying to work on muscle placement. Unless wings are something you're really familiar with drawing, I would hold off until you really understand how a quadruped's shoulder and chest muscles work. Adding wings to a quadruped is a tad difficult -- again, there's no right way to do it because it's anatomically impossible, but that also means it's hard to do it in a way that looks plausible.

If you want to try messing with wings though, it's a lot like trying to add a second pair of arms with very long fingers. Studying bat anatomy will help but you can use other references as well (my dragon wings tend to look rather like elongated human arms XD).

Also, find some dragon art you like and try to reproduce it. I did a lot of that when I was learning how to draw. Reproductions allow you to learn techniques that you wouldn't otherwise think to try. This goes without saying but enough art theft happens that I'm going to say it anyway: Don't claim it as your own. I wouldn't even post reproduction art anywhere if I were you. But it's a really helpful tool if done respectfully.

I really hoped this helped. Trying to explain how to draw something through text is a little difficult. D:

EDIT: Quadruped. Most dragons are drawn to be quadrupedal. I know what words mean I swear.

definitely look at other animals! like dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, anything. using different animals as “bases” for how you draw dragons can make dragons look a lot more “real”, and make their distinctive anatomy a lot easier. when it comes to drawing fr dragons, i like to make skydancers a lot more birdlike, and imps more mammal-like. look at stuff like skeletal and muscle structure to make sure your anatomy is good. honestly i got better at drawing dragons from just drawing fr dragons and mixing both my knowledge of anatomy and stuff from realistic art of dogs and stuff with my own less realistic style.

@Kairo

you don't

idk

jk jk

just i dunno
get guud

kidding also

but for drawing heads i draw like the two skull parts so the top then the jaw and that kinda sets up the whole dragon for me
and anything you draw could be a dragon really
because they are all shapes and sizes and wingless
just it's the thought that counts

best of wishes

i'm unhelpful i know

Well the good thing about drawing dragons is that however you draw a dragon, it's 'accurate' :p.

Seriously though, there's so many ways to approach drawing dragons, and just like with drawing anything, it's going to take time and practice, practice, practice to figure out how you want to draw them.

Me, personally, I come from a paleontology background, dinosaurs being my focus, so a lot of my dragons have dinosaur-like qualities. Because that's what I know. I know various dinosaur skeleton structures, and I play with those to get the kind of dragons I want.

I also add in traits of other creatures as needed -- fish, birds, cats, dogs, horses, whatever.

Collect references! Like, this drawing here really shows how a lizard's leg looks, this photo has a good angle of a bird's head from below, this one shows a cat's wing in motion, etc. Look around, see what other artists are doing, experiment with some of their ideas and see if you can use some of those tricks for yourself to develop your own style of dragons.

If you're going for more realistic-style dragons that have believably workable physiology, well...that's going to take a lot more time to get down. But keep at it. And don't just draw dragons. Draw EVERYTHING. Doodle what you see around you whenever you've got a few minutes of time. Any art skills you learn will only help.

!! i didn't expect so much advice tbh, thank you everyone!! this is helping a ton and i've already started some sketches. <3

I uh..... idk how I do it really but for most creatures I figure out a shape that I like and base the shape of the skull/rest of the body like that?
In my opinion the leg joints will never look ‘right’ as a dragon isn’t a normal creature so making the smaller limbs biologically correct is incredibly difficult so focus mainly on getting the overall look correct rather than the specifics (at least to start)


Sorry I have no idea how to explain stuff

I'd suggest starting by studying dinosaurs, birds and modern reptiles. You could just draw a dinosaur with wings, call it a dragon and no one can tell you it's wrong.