How To Draw A Dragon

Drawing a dragon, those classic fantasy beasts that have wings and are usually an icon of fantasy art. This is a drawing tutorial which will look at the very many aspects of drawing a dragon and as such the first attempt is the best case scenario as I draw a Dragon and then try and do some extra blog posts around drawing different elements of a dragon creature.

As you may know, a Dragon can look very different as there are many dragons that have been created by many fantasy artists and one thing I always get drawn to creating is dragons with a personality. This drawing process is great, because you can learn to draw fire dragons, ice dragons, cave dragons and lots more and that's what we will do eventually as time goes on, I would like to do a full series on drawing some Dragons.

But for now, here is a Dragon drawing tutorial from the heart as I love these imaginary creatures, not too sure if they actually existed or that they got confused with dinosaurs, but they sure are cool to draw.

Side note: I've had a few emails about breaking my drawing tutorials into more precise parts and this is something that I will start to apply to my drawing tutorials over time and particular with my drawing videos on YouTube. Look for more detailed tutorials soon.

The first sketching step of your dragon drawing is to just begin....

The beginning step should mark out the important shape of the head and the two legs at the front as well as the wing shoulder and the larger circles represent the leg joints and the small one is the wing shoulder, try to lay them out roughly at first as the legs could change position later depending on how you draw your dragon.

If you draw them like I have, then you can assume that the body will be drawn around the arms and legs and the wings, so try and give yourself enough space to do so.

Dragon Beginning Sketch

The Second dragon sketch focuses on the body....

The body of the dragon must be drawn in now making sure to include your arm and leg and wing reference points and also to connect the head to the neck and body. The curve on the dragons tail is done with a view to draw in a tail end design of some sort later on.

The body shape of the dragon is long and when you come to draw the legs you'll see it all should balance out quite nicely, just remember that the back leg is slightly bigger to support the dragons weight more and this is shown with the larger leg joint than the front arm.

Dragon body sketching....

The third stage of drawing sees the dragons whole body being worked out and that's not a Dragon going to the gym or anything, it's the final sketch stage that sees the whole figure decided upon, complete with the wings and the arms and legs and one thing that I have not decided to do is to draw the other set of legs at the other side because there is a good reason for that, as I am working on a separate blog post that will deal with the problem of drawing legs and arms behind the body as this has been mentioned quite a few times to me by email.

So look for that post soon to see the complete dragon...

Dragon Drawing sketching complete...

The fourth stage of drawing our dragon is the inking stage that I so into doing on most of my drawings as I feel it gives your drawing a permanent and solid look of line work, a few details can be added at this stage and that's what I do with the head in particular with the eyes and the horned fin like spines as well as a few muscle lines along the way.
As I said before the dragon isn't finished yet as I want to address the problem of drawing legs behind the front legs which deals with foreshortening and some slight perspective, so watch out for that.


Dragon drawing inked....

Try some of these - Dragon Drawing Books for more dedicated help on drawing different dragons.

Also see the 3 part drawing video tutorial below for an alternative idea on drawing a Dragon idea.

Also see how to draw a Minotaur
And also How To Draw A Predators Face