Fantastic creatures may not be real, but it doesn't mean they can't be drawn in a realistic way. If you want to learn how to draw a dragon, in this tutorial I will lead you step by step. You can also use the tutorial to create a base for your own dragon, with the details of your own choosing. Muscles, wings, claws, scales—this tutorial has it all!
Prefer to learn via video? Check out our tutorial over on Envato Tuts+ YouTube Channel to find out how to draw an Ice Dragon from Game of Thrones.
It's nearly impossible to draw something from imagination step by step without a base. Try to quickly sketch your idea without any details—just the pose and general proportions.
How To Draw A Dragon (with Pictures)
We're going to build upon this sketch now. Draw a big oval in the chest area. Dragons have huge chests, because they need powerful breast muscles for their wings.
The default pose of the legs is easy, but also boring. Let's create the other pair of legs to make it more dynamic. Imagine every part of the leg is like the hand of a clock, with the joint at the center. Draw the path on which it would go.
Add a circle at the end of the neck. This will be the whole width of the head, not just the brain case.
Draw A Dragon Wing
Time for the wings. This will be a rather unnatural pose for the wings, but all the other poses require perspective, and I want to keep it easy. If you want, you can try to pose the wings in some other way.
Because of our simple perspective, the other wing is hidden. However, a dragon with one wing would look weird, so feel free to add a part of the other one.
The pose is ready, so now let's add some body to this bare skeleton. Draw a circle around the arm—this will be the triceps and biceps all in one.
Quite Happy With This One... Added Clouds Because I'm Very Bad At Drawing Dragon Feet
Time for more details of the head. The best way to start the head is to create a simplified skull for a base. First, the brain case...
If the dragon is related to dinosaurs, it will look nice with dinosaur hips. Add this shape to the base of the tail to make it more solid.
There are a couple more details we need to add before the body is fully shaped: the toes and claws. First, draw the tip of the middle toe. Leave some space for the claw, and flatten the pad as it's pressed to the ground.
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Many animals have a "thumb" called a dew claw on their front legs. This is helpful for holding the prey while eating, and, in the case of dragons, for catching prey in flight.
The base of the body is done, so you can now finish it any way you want! I will show you my way, but feel free to create your own details. If you're drawing traditionally, you can put a new sheet of paper over the sketch to draw the clean final lines, or use a darker tool to make the sketch less visible.
It's hard to make any facial expression when you have hard scales on your face, but the scales themselves may create a false expression. If you want to make your dragon look angry or badass, put some bigger scales along its brow.
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What's a dragon without horns? Make sure you attach them to the upper part of the skull, not to the lower jaw by accident (I have nothing against horns on the lower jaw, but it's harder to make them functional).
Time for the body scales! Draw rows all over the body, adjusting their shape to the 3D form beneath. Imagine that you're trying to cover the body with parallel rows of tape.
Cross the rows now, creating a pattern of roof tiles—each line of one row should be placed between two lines of its side rows.
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The wings don't need too many scales, so just sketch a few of them at the base. Outline the fingers as well.
If you want to turn this piece of line art into a finished artwork without coloring, you can add simple, sketchy shading. This will add some volume to the dragon's body.
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I'm a Polish artist with a great passion for creating new things—whether by drawing, digital painting, or photo manipulation. I have 10+ years of experience in using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator, both for graphic and for creating unique works of art as well. I hold a degree in graphic , but nowadays I work as a freelance illustrator and a tutorial author. I specialize in creating realistic art, especially of animals, and I'm good at ing imaginary creatures in a realistic way. I'm a big fan of dragons and feline creatures! Because I learn the best by teaching, and I love sharing my skills with others, in my free time I like to create educational posts on my own blog. I also share the behind-the-scenes of my art on my Instagram. I consider myself an unofficial ambassador of Sketchbook Pro, a seriously underrated program for digital art, which I use every day in my work. You can learn more about me on the Sketchbook Blog: https://www.sketchbook.com/blog/animals-creatures-by-monika-zagrobelnaWhat’s not to love about dragons?! They’re mighty, mythical, mysterious and are the integral part of many epic stories, comic books included.
So, we turned to our lead comic book artist to create a beginner-friendly tutorial and help you learn how to draw a dragon.
If you prefer paper and pencil guides, stick around. We’ll share a set of illustrations you can copy and use to learn how to draw a dragon step-by-step, also brought to you by our lead artist.
Easy How To Draw A Dragon Ideas
By the way, Gonçalo is the lead artist behind the ic book. Although there are no dragons in the comic, the story about the war that wages within features some pretty cool-looking characters, such as Blastor, the B-Cells commander. We invite you to meet all protagonists and explore their adventures!
Don’t have any of these? No worries; Just pick up your favorite pencil and just watch the pressure you apply with it!
Since dragons exist only in our imagination, there are a ton of different imaginations of them. So, have fun with it! And draw a dragon that fits your storyline.
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Aim to draw this shape somewhere in the middle of your paper to leave enough room for the wings, legs, and tail to come in.
The base for the dragon’s chest looks like a slanted rectangle with rounded edges that’s also slightly wider on the left side, like so:
You should leave some space between the chest and the hips and position them so that the top angle of the hips is just a tiny bit above the chest.
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Oh, and it also resembles a reversed capital B but with sharp lines and without them meeting in the middle. Use slightly curved lines to draw the head:
Start with its left arm. Remember, these are just guidelines, so we’ll continue using simple shapes to place everything in its position.
The upper oval shape touches the neck and it goes a bit under the lower chest line. The bottom oval shape is attached to the chest.
Epic Dragon During Boring Car Ride. Mechanical Pencil, 2014.
Since the dragon we’re illustrating is standing on all fours, the hand is placed firmly on the ground at a 90-degree angle. Oh, and it’s spikey because dragons have claws on their feet!
While we’re on the subject of drawing hands, if you struggle to sketch a human foot, check out our beginner-friendly guide on drawing hands!
The forearm outline on the left and the right are the same shape. Just make sure that they’re parallel to each other!
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And to finish drawing the left front arm outline, sketch the hand just like you drew the one on the left side:
Again, draw the two mountain outlines next to each other. Don’t worry if this hand is not the same size as the one of the left. Gonçalo also illustrated the right front hand larger than the left.
The dragon’s back legs are stronger than its front, so the thigh muscles are bigger and just slightly wider than the front left thigh.
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Its shape is more rectangular that the shin at the front. Also, the part that’s closer to the ground is wider than the bit below the thigh.
For the former, draw a curved line that looks like the inside of a bowl, and for the latter, the shape of the contact lens, like this:
Dragons’ tails are usually as long as their torso, if not the whole body. Theoretically, this helps them balance their weight while flying. In practice, it just makes it grander and more intimidating.
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For starters, draw a long, peanut-like shape, have it cover around one-third of the dragon’s hips and point it to the right, like so:
We’ll curve the tail towards the body, so overlap the tail base with a similar sized and shaped outline. Angle it at almost 90 degrees.
Ensure that the
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