How To Draw a Dragon

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How To Draw a Dragon

Below I have started a cartoon of a dragon by simply creating an oval shape for a head, and a long winding line for the body. There are obviously many different shapes and types of dragon in movies and popular culture, but for this cartoon I decided to make it long like a snake.

How To Draw a Dragon - Simple Outline

How To Draw a Dragon



Next I added outlines for wings and claws. Again you can see I only ever used simple shapes. The claws and legs were created using small circles, one of each joint in the legs and for the location of each talon, and I then joined them with lines. I also added curved lines under the belly of the monster giving the skin a similar look to that of many lizards and alligators - a soft underbelly with a much harder scaly upper surface.

More Details and Finishing touches

Now that the drawing is taking shape and becoming more complex I darkened some of the lines in pencil so I could see the dragon better, and so decide what still had to be done, as shown below:





Now that the cartoon is nearing completion I added more final detail, adding shadow into the mouth and ear, plus small scales on the upper surface of the skin. At this stage I used ink over the pencil marks as I knew I was happy with the final result and so could risk making it permanent.



Finally I erased the pencil marks and my dragon was finished!



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cartooniain

Iain is a professional Artist who creates cartoons, portraits and illustrations, and specialises in Oil Acrylic and Digital Pet Portraits from Photogr... more »

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