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LittleFireDragon β How To Draw Your Dragon
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Published: 2011-03-30 01:21:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 52498; Favourites: 1914; Downloads: 905
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Description
This is my guide to dragon anatomy. It is not a traditional tutorial that shows you step-by-step, "here's how to draw this picture of a dragon", because nobody ever learned anything from that, and if they did it was from subconsciously doing what I'm skipping to here.
You see, a tutorial that walks you through but never explains doesn't teach you how to draw, it teaches you how to copy. To truly draw, you need to learn to See. Seeing is understanding how something works, so you can picture it in your head and understand how it all connects. For animals, this requires you to know how the bones work.
Thus, I've shown a reference, rather than a how-to guide. I've explained in detail, and hopefully by my explanations and good old observation, you'll be able to figure it out.
Give a man a tutorial, he'll fill a page. Give him a reference and he'll fill a sketchbook.
One more thing: practice. I took years to get this good. You won't get there overnight. Deal with it. Just keep trying.
Note: Should be antorbital fenestra. I keep typing anti for some reason.
Part 1: Basics
Part 2: Skull
Part 3: Eyes
Part 4: Basic Flesh
Part 5-1: Back Legs
Part 5-2: Front Legs
Part 6-1: Bat Wings
Part 7: Torso
Related content
Comments: 128
I love dragons, i must said that the ilustrations and part of the information with scientific names are very good. IΒ΄m studying to be a Paleontologist (maybe because Dinosaurs were the most similiars to Dragons in real life) and part of it is learn about zoology with all the names of bodyΒ΄s structures. You give it a good look to this guide, IΒ΄ll be seeing the following parts of your guide to learn more.Β
If you love dragons so much, thereΒ΄s a series of books that talks about all the species, itΒ΄s differences, where their live, etc. I donΒ΄t remember good the title of it, but I remember de name of Dr. Ernest Drake whoΒ΄s a famous Draconologist. I recomend it, if you want to know more about dragons.
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It's called Dragonology, and it's sitting on the bookshelf about two feet away from me.
And yes, the anatomy is based on dinosaurs. Before I ended up becoming a computer programmer, I always wanted to be a paleontologist.
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Me too! I'm a REALLY big Jurrasic Park fan, and I often look at tutorials like these when drawing dragons from books or movies (I.E. Peril from Wings of Fire, or Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon), or carnivorous dinosaurs (Velociraptors, Indoraptor, T-Rex, I-Rex, etc.). And speaking of dragons and dinosaurs, I'm planning on writing a HTTYD/Jurrasic Park crossover.
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Uh what about how a dragon ignites its fire and how it gets the marital to actually light a flame within its own body?Β
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There are plenty of theories of how that would work; none of them are relevant to structural anatomy. For drawing a creature, you don't really need to know which guts are where, or what they do, just that "there are organs in here". It's the muscle and bone that are most important to that; the rest is just "stuff takes up space in here".
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If you really want to know, they have a combustible gas in an organ they have, and they swallow specific rocks to help them ignite it.
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this is amazing! I have trouble drawing dragons ;-;
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Finally, someone who gets proper anatomy and doesn't draw the back legs with backwards-facing knees! Not even birds have backwards knees.
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I have rarely seen anyone actually make that mistake except while in the transition phase where they're just figuring out that legs have actual joints instead of being noodles. Is it really that common?
Well, at least with most birds you have the excuse that their thighs are almost completely hidden in their feathers so it looks for all intents and purposes like they have backwards knees. XD
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It's common, trust me. In video games it's actually more common. For example, in Runescape a lot of the animal models have backward-facing knees. I run into a lot of artists going through the backward knee phase and I at least try to help them. I love that you posted a REAL skeleton with a fantasy creature to show exactly how it would be if it were a real creature.
Bird thighs are hidden, mostly due to feathers, but in movies like The Croods and in a lot of drawings, the knee is waaay back where the hip bone should be and the thigh bump on the body is completely gone. Birds can be acceptable only and only if the legs come from their body at the mid-point and not near their butt. I can totally see your point, though.
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Ah, yeah. In low resolution games that's justified by low polycounts, but in higher res games or pixel art games it is pretty stupid, yeah.
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This is very helpful. Thank you for sharing. I wanted to start drawing dragons the correct way but, I didn't know where to start. This is a big help. ;u;
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To draw, you only need to understand. Glad I could help.
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That's very true. ;u;Β
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I was browsing through da for anatomy refs
and found yours very early
I know it's old but I don't see it as a helpful tutorial because it inclueds too many mistakes, it could easily confuse younger artists
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I just picked up my sketchbook that has been sitting of the floor of my cold basement for about a month. Holy ****, it's cold!
(I don't have any room to set down my sketchbook on my PC Desk, so I have to draw with the notebook on my knee. Oh well.)
Thanks for the tutorial, hopefully I could use it in such a way that could improve my drawing capabilities! If you want to see the finished product, check my account thingy in a few hours.
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Thanks. Glad you like it.
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OMG thanks!! extremely helpful for my sketching.
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Thank you for this it helps a lot for when i'm drawing dragons !
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Glad I could help.
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cool, but the feet look kinda small
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Hm, so they do a bit - the front ones mostly. They could probably stand to be a little longer. This is an old drawing.
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don't worry about it, its cool! I loooovvveee dragon sketches!π
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No problem. Glad you like it.
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Ma'am, actually. (Don't worry, it happens a lot!)Β
But you're welcome. I'm glad I could help.
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i looked at this for 20 seconds to figure out the basic skull of the dragon im supposed to draw and already ive improved! Thank you for making this, long-term im sure it has beautiful results!
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Thank you! I'm glad it helped!
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Neat tutorial, the wings are the Key bit for me
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I have an extended tutorial on wings here: littlefiredragon.deviantart.coβ¦
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Thanks for the basic guide, this will likely be pretty helpful when I begin on my dragon sketches.
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I'm glad to be of service.
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I like it. This will certainly help me with my dragons. And nice pun, by the way.
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Heh. Thanks.
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This is brilliant! Call me crazy but I believe Dragons could have existed! Because its anatomy is possible!
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I have a firm belief that humans will make dragons, once we have enough genetic research from most animals, like the R-Rex, Horse, and perhaps a hawk, with a bit of human cranial DNA to make it intelligent. It night not be able to breath fire or fly (on the first try), but with the leaps in medical advances we have (designer babies are possible now, just not allowed on ethnic grounds)... Of course, I think starting with a unicorn would be easier. Because one day a bored scientist will say, "why not?"
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We've already made unicorns. You don't even need genetic engineering. Just patience and some fussing with the horn buds of young goats.
www.sideshowworld.com/9-ms-pi/β¦
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*Addendum to previous comment*
Anyway I'm glad you appreciate this.
If my tutorials aren't enough, I suggest looking into dinosaur anatomy.
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Hm. If dragons existed I doubt they were large, breathed fire, or had four legs. The wyvern build is more plausible.
That being said, by that definition of a dragon, they did indeed exist - we just now call them pterosaurs.
anwo.com/store/media/rhamphorhβ¦Β Meet Rhamphorhynchus. He's small and doesn't breathe fire. But he has leathery wings, talons, anΒ arrow-tipped tail, and a mouth full of sharp teeth!
The thing about dragons is they're just a distorted vision of real creatures. Did giant, fire breathing monsters ever live? Almost certainly not. Did things exist that we could look at and say "Yeah if I were a medieval peasant and I found that skeleton, I'd think it was a dragon"? Absolutely. Only today we recognize most such creatures as pterosaurs or dinosaurs - which, incidentally, is what I base my dragon anatomy on.
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I'm learning how to draw dragons myself, yet not sure if using picture refs and drawing off them is a good thing.
I used tutorials to draw a whole dragons and like 5 heads.
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The thing about references and tutorials is that tutorials generally walk you through it step by step without actually teaching you how anything works. It's memorization rather than learning. And it teaches you to draw only the one dragon it shows you how to draw.
Some tutorials, like those from DragonArt by neondragon actually EXPLAIN things, and that makes them a weird tutorial/reference hybrid. These are good.
The ones that just say "Hey draw a circle. Now draw another circle. Connect them like this. No, I won't explain why, just do it..." are not so good. It teaches very little and if you try to repose the dragon or draw it from another angle you're left wondering what to do because the tutorial never covered that.
Of course, merely copying a reference picture isn't much better. Again, that's mechanical rather than learning. A reference picture is intended not for you to copy but for you to examine. To look at it and go "OH so THAT'S how that works, okay, I understand now!" And if you understand it, physically,Β you're more able to draw it.
It's the difference between memorizing a multiplication table and actually learning how multiplication works. Either way, if you have memoried that 2 x 2 is 4, you'll be able to multiply two and two together. But if you only memorized it, you won't necessarily be able to apply the same principle to three and three, which you could do if you learned the basics of multiplication instead of memorizing tables.
Am I making sense or am I talking gibberish again?
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You're making sense,I understood what you said.
What I do, is I tend to really not examine reference pictures I tend to follow them,because I really don't know how to draw the actual thing too well. LIke with some of my dragons I followed off a reference because I had no idea how to draw the actual thing. That's what I tend to do with my drawings,and I'm trying not to do that anymore.Β
Β And it's become more of a habit to look at the picture and follow it as I draw it,how would I fix that exactly ?
I do get the example, I need to really learn basics of drawing dragons and how they work,I've been just using tutorials, which I was starting to feel like they weren't really helping me, which they weren't very much. I think I just went to them because I was a beginner and had no idea how to draw a dragon head ,dragon,pokemon,etc. I'm trying to learn the anatomy and look a pictures to get ideas instead of just something I copy.
Following drawings and copying a reference is kinda a habit. When I am drawing,I look at the drawing and try to draw it by looking at it and following it.
I've been taught that I should actually examine my references, but the main thing my mind does is it goes, "I don't know how to draw that,maybe I should draw this that I'm seeing right now. I've been dependent on copying references to get good drawings for two months.
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Ah, yeah. That's a problem a lot of people have, learning to break out of just drawing the lines they see and actually figure out how those lines connect.
That's why I like using skeletal references so much. They force you to not directly copy (since you're usually not drawing a skeleton), but give you proportions to work from and joints to look at.
Best of luck!
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