#dragon tutorial

(by Wyvern-Tales, this is how I do it, many others have different methods, and I erase all the time lol)

1. Start off with the head! Every drawing begins with a lightly-sketched circle! Add a slightly curved angle near the front of the circle, or where you want your dragon to face. This will be your snout! It can be round or pointed, all depends on you!

2. Add a zig-zag to the bottom of the angle, doesn't have to be perfect! This will be your top jaw! Dragon teeth aren't always orderly, so again, shape depends on what type of dragon you're looking for! Add the bottom half of a rectangle to your zig-zag for the dragon's chin and cheek! The right edge can be round or pointed, your choice!

3. Give your little friend a nostril, eye, and snout pattern! You don't have to have a pattern, but I always like to use one, makes them look more detailed :}

4. Give em a little ear, horn, and forehead! Ears can be oval, leaf-shaped, or just pointy! My water dragons have webbing in place of ears, and some don't have ears at all! Horn shapes depend entirely on the artist, right now I'm doing the standard wavy one. Start off the neck by adding a simple curved line near the base of the chin!

5. Complete the neck by adding a second curvy line from the base of the ear, and continue your snout pattern down the spine! Add a few spikes or feathers on the forehead and neck, just to start things off! Spine decoration can vary among dragons, so yours can have whatever!! Add the belly plates, starting from the chin and down, and make the chest by extending off the neck! Belly pattern can be any shape, most people just do a simple snake-belly pattern, but for this guy I'm using round plates!

6. Make your first front leg/arm by making a sort of sideways seagull shape. It can be as long as you want, but make sure the bottom part goes down far enough from the chest, unless you want your dragon to have stubby legs. Make your claws by drawing a triangle at the base of the leg/wrist! Repeat two-three more times for your fingers, and make an extra line go up to start the back of the wrist!

7. Repeat for the second leg, only use just two triangles for claws, and add some patterns! Finish your belly plates too, be sure to make them bigger as they go further down the body.

8. Make your wing by branching off the top of the front leg and bending inward, toward the head. Add a hook to the end for wing-claws, and curve off the base of the hook to start your full wing. Complete the wing by adding some slightly bent spikes! Remember, dragon wings are like bat wings in the sense that the 'spikes' are like fingers. Add three of these, plus one by the leg, and finish with the webbing! Make an inward-facing curve for the belly too, as this will help you with the back legs!

9. Make your hind leg by using yet another zig-zag, but make sure the top half is thicker and bigger than the lower. Repeat step 6 for the claws, and I like to add a small hook on the heel, for a back toe. Do the same for the other leg, and add some detail!

10. Make your tail with some simple curved lines, and continue the belly plates and the snout pattern, which should trail down the spine! Add some fine details, like spikes, shading, and (maybe) a tail-feather, and you're good to go! Remember, small details like those all depend on the artist, and it's fine if you erase something every step, so go crazy! Enjoy! (Also, I would give you more steps, but Tumblr won't allow it :/)

https://www.clipstudio.net/how-to-draw/archives/156800

Whew! This was a beast to get through but I really wanted to make it as helpful as possible (I even considered making wings their own separate tutorial)

(Also, I like to go over the bone areas between the joints with an eraser to make it note natural looking??)

You can finally see my terrible handwriting!  This is the first thing I’ve done with my new tablet and art program.  I had to switch, I guess my tablet takes to mush computing power to run Krita at the same time.