Drawing Dragons II

Many of the same principles apply to drawing a dragon's entire body as did in the previous tutorial on drawing dragon face and head. In this tutorial I will cover how to draw a basic western style dragon, However there are many various body types in the dragon world: Wyvrens having only two legs, Eastern dragons with elongated bodies and often times no wings, Wyrms with no wings or legs, Quetzaquatal haveing feathered wings and snake like body, Salamanders small and lizard like in appearence often with multiple sets of legs, some dragons are even insect like...ex There are as many more varieties as your imagination can come up with.

Step One

start off with some basic lines and maybe a few circles for major features like head, hips and chest area. Try to get an idea of the pose that you want your dragon in, do you want the wings spread or folded? Is he rearing up to take flight or crouching down to protect her nest of eggs? Maybe your dragon will be breathing fire! Whatever pose you choose keep in mind that dragons are usally very serpentine creatures, so you'll want to use lots of curved lines to get the basic movement and gesture of the dragon right.

Step Two

After you decide on a basic pose and get a quick gesture sketch down on paper you'll want to start fleshing your dragon out more. Most dragons fly, so they will have a deep chest to make room for the flight muscles. Use oval and circle shapes to define were your dragon starts and ends and were the muscles and tendons are.

Step Three

Start to draw in some of the finer features, decide the positions of the toes by useing lines with circles at the joints. Look at your own hand if it helps or refrences lizard feet or bird talons. Sketch in circles for around were the eye will be positioned.

Step Four

The wing is composed much the same way as the feet, use lines for the "fingers" of the wing and small circles for the joint. Dragons typically have bat-like wings which are composed much like the human hand only with elongated fingers so your own hand is a good refrence for the wings as well. Continue to add detail to the face, sketch in the eye, mouth, and nostrils. A football shape with a circle within is an simple way to draw an eye.

Step Five

Continue to darken your line and define your dragon more and more. Add Fins or spikes along its back, show teeth protruding from the mouth or perhaps give your dragon a forked tounge to taste the air. Be as creative as you want with your dragon! Copying is good to start out for those just learning but once you begin to get the hang of drawing more and more then try to come up new and interesting species of dragons to draw. If you run out of ideas for new dragos you can always look to mythology, there is plenty of myths and folklore surrounding dragons from all over the world.

Step Six

At this point you might want to erase some of your sketch lines and darken the lines you are happiest with. Don't forget to add in the legs and wing on the far side of the body, forgetting these will make your dragon look flatter and less three dimensional. An easy way is to simply mirror the legs and wing of the other side, but once your more accustom to drawing dragons you'll probably want to try different positions of the legs and wings to make your drawing more dynamic!

Step Seven

Like with the head you can draw some contour lines to get the idea of the shape of your dragon better before putting in the scales, however I skipped this step this time and just started drawing them in. Do whatever is best for you, you will find the more you draw dragons you will fall into your own method and style.

Step Eight

Once you have all your scales drawn in you can take several different approaches to finishing your dragon drawing. You can use your pencil and shade in your dragon to give it depth and dimension and leave it as a black and white drawing. You can also scan it in and do your shadeing useing photoshop or other paint program as well as add color. You could also choose to ink your dragon to give it a bold look or even paint it. How you finish your drawing is up to you, however the next art tutorial I will post will be on painting your dragon drawings useing photoshop! :D

I Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful! Have fun Drawing Dragons!