NeuroticDrag

What WILL she post next?!

Today its some very old ZoSan fanart that i cleaned up

of course - Thank you so much!

Is this you? Even if it isn't, pretend it is.

Is this you again, trying to put some soul into those draconic eyes?

if so, fear not - drawing dragon expressions is a simple, painless process as soon as you learn these three foundational rules!

1 - Humanize

Like other animals, dragons do not possess the same facial muscles as humans and have trouble making expressive faces while still remaining within these constraints. This can make drawing emotive dragons difficult, and so the most important rule of making a good expression is to HUMANIZE! No matter what artstyle/realism level you use, translating human expressions onto dragon faces is the easiest way to make them emotive.

Humanizing a dragon's face is much easier than you might think, and it all starts with feature spotting. Here, I've annotated my doodle and labelled what I view as the most important shapes of the expression: The huge eyes, dramatic curves and tooth-shaped mouth. Since all of these important shapes have been applied to the dragon, their expression looks exactly like the one I was trying to copy!

In order to fully explain how you actually DO that, I'm going to use a live example. If you're trying to work on your dragon expressions, you may as well do this exercise with me! I've already annotated this expression to highlight the most important shapes.

First, I'm going to draw the angle of the dragon's head. If you don't like drawing dragon heads, this handy reference sheet I made might be of use.

Next, I added the eye. I kept it very close to the snout in order to mimic the angle a little better.

Finally, the smile! But wait, something isn't right...

After a second glance, I decided to pull the forehead out using the 'liquify' tool and redid the eye so it had hollow pupils. I didn't think coloring in the eye would've made such a big difference, but it did! Either way, we now have one beautiful expression full of life and character.

2 - Beware of the Micro-expressions

This is especially important when drawing your characters in a scene/with any context at all, but remember to focus on micro-expressions! Subtle changes to the same face can produce entirely different results: and even though micro-expressions often slip by unnoticed, they are CRUCIAL in building your character's 'vibe!' My two OCs Seigel and Bigfin handily happen to have the same emotion on their reference sheets, however both dragons present it in extremely different ways - all thanks to the use of a few subtle artistic choices, such as changing posture or head angle.

3 - Remember Your Poses

Although this post is about facial expressions, it's important to remember your dragon's head doesn't just exist in a void. Pose is equally as important to building a certain emotion in a character, and different poses can completely change the vibe of your character.

Talons and Paws - The tutorial

Hi guys! The talon dragon will be administering this tutorial.

We’re going to talk a little bit about different tricks/references you can use to make nice paws and talons, as well as discussing the anatomical differences between them. This isn't a step-by-step tutorial, but it does include useful examples and quick poses for you to reference in a time of need.

Before we get into the details of the tutorial, remember two things: first of all, even the talon dragon isn’t the best anatomy expert ever. Secondly, dragons aren’t real and you can do whatever you want. Now, without further ado..

Let's get one thing straight: I (the talon dragon) draw appendages which anatomically fall somewhere in between human-like and cat-like, as seen in the chart above. While these sketches might look like they all use the same anatomy, they don't: and the ratio of human to cat is slightly different per design.

Those of you who love speculative biology might be crashing out about this, but inconsistency = practicality in the case of talons. Sometimes a pose needs opposable thumbs, sometimes it doesn't... as the artist, you can make your life easier by being flexible and swapping these features out at your discretion (I do this a lot with my artwork, since I have a tight turnaround for posts and don't want to fuck around drawing talons all day.)

I shall show you two ways of drawing talons: human-like and cat-like. That way you guys can learn how to do them with and without pronounced opposable thumbs.

Human-like talons are notably seen (kind of) in the graphic novels. Compared to a normal hand, they have shorter fingers, longer palms and large finger pads. You can even smack some paw pads on the bottom if you want to!

Instead of following a step-by-step tutorial, I recommend using the 'liquify' tool (can be found on most digital drawing apps) and trying to twist some human hands into a more draconic shape. This will help you familiarize yourself with the differences between talon and hand. I've tried it myself in the image above, alongside some annotations and a traced sketch of the final result which you can reference if you're struggling.

Feel free to play around with the length, width and stubbiness of your talons - squashing them brings out a paw-like shape, while stretching them creates a more traditional 'talon.' The paw pads also make a big difference on how your dragon's limbs are perceived.

Speaking of paw pads - you can also use cat/dog paws as references for your talons! Making these look draconic is a lot easier - I tend to over-pronounce the lumbrical muscles (those lines above the toes) and call it a day. Paws are much easier to simplify, and very handy when it comes to fullbodies/poses that don't require any specific talon-to-object interaction.

Although they save time, paws still have their own set of disadvantages - they lack room for accessories and tend to take away from the lizardness of the dragon. If you're looking to adhere to more reptilian proportions, paws are not for you.

Drawing talons is one thing - posing them is another! Most beginner artists tend to struggle more with where to put their talons, given how awkward a dragon's stance really is when looked at in plain view. These bent-lightning-bolt shapes have served me well over the years, creating dynamic movement while still being easy to draw.

And of course - if you don't like drawing talons, you don't HAVE to! (At least, not every single time.) While I recommend facing your problems (talons) head on, even I cheat sometimes.

Garth Brooks winning video of the year at the ACMs for a song about how none of us are free as long as there's racism and homophobia

Reba McEntire charting with a gothic horror song about an innocent man being executed by an incompetent judge and a corrupt sheriff

Willie Nelson being, well, his entire self tbh

Dolly Parton recording the hating capitalism banger of all time

listen. Alan Jackson, the archetypal mister big hat man sitting on a tractor singing about a pickup truck, wrote a shockingly normal song about 9/11 that was like "yeah I don't know jack shit about politics but my copy of the bible says we're supposed to love everyone" and then went on the radio and explained how he specifically wanted to write a song about that day that "wasn't vengeful". Miranda Lambert took the southern leftist slogan "y'all means all" and made it the title of a corny ass pop-country song for the Queer Eye soundtrack. Kenny Chesney stole a horse from a cop and Tim McGraw put the cop in a chokehold defending him, and I know that's not about their music but it is, and this is very important, fucking sick as hell

Luke Combs covering Fast Car and keeping the line "I work in the market as a checkout girl" and doing an interview about how he couldn't change a single word because it's not his story. king shit

Morgan Wallen doing I Had Some Help, literally the first song that spoke to me as a male survivor of domestic abuse. also shoutout to the guy for getting caught saying a racial slur and responding by specifically telling his fans not to defend him and raising a bunch of money for the Black Music Action Coalition. bro had an engraved invitation to the culture war and said "nah I'd rather be normal"

Shaboozey just absolutely obliterating the drunk roadhouse anthem glass ceiling

Maren Morris and Brothers Osborne with a song that okay, released in 2019 but I didn't hear until recently, about how good friends mind their own business and let you love whoever you want and also get high with you when you're broke

Kimberley Perry! If I Die Young Part 2!! "actually I'm glad I lived, bitch" ass song that I bet is gonna mean a LOT to kids fighting depression

I struggle to make fandom friends on Tumblr, and sometimes I worry that it is because people in their 20s think they can't be friends with someone in their 40s. That I'm uncool, weird, cringe, intimidating, or just too different from them.

But things don't change as much with age as most think. Older people still are silly, awkward, overwhelmed, enthusiastic, confused, playful, irresponsible, obsessive, dumb, cool, horny, and all these other things young people think we stop feeling or being as we get older. We're just humans. I am really great friends with someone on here more than 20 years younger than me because we have so much in common! You can't tell that we're different ages when we chat.

And also—you can be friends with people who you do NOT have much in common with! Because fundamentally, you always have humanity in common.

Years ago, there was this lady in my community who was maybe 30 years older than me and who I knew was far more conservative than me. I dismissed her as someone I didn't want to spend any time with because she was obviously too different than me. But, I was forced to spend some time with her (long story), and guess what? I became really good friends with her! Because I found out I was wrong about all those things that made her different than me? NO! I was right about that—she was just as annoyingly conservative as I had suspected. BUT that wasn't the whole of her person. She was so much richer than that. There were lots of things I didn't know about her. A few of those things were commonalities, but overall, we still didn't have much in common—but that didn't matter. We could still be kind to each other, help each other, respect each other, even enjoy each other's company if we stuck to topics where we didn't clash too badly. I feel really bad for judging her, and I'm so glad I gave her a chance.

The Bored Button - "Press the Bored Button and be bored no more."

The Useless Web

Cloudhiker - "Discover the most interesting, weird and awesome websites of the Internet" (not really a rebrand, it's a different person running it but they have the same intention in mind)

Astronaut.io - "These videos come from YouTube. They were uploaded in the last week and have titles like DSC 1234 and IMG 4321. They have almost zero previous views. They are unnamed, unedited, and unseen (by anyone but you)."