What you will learn
Simple techniques for using your imagination and some basic reference photos to draw a dragon. These techniques can be applied to drawing other imaginative creatures as well.
What you will need
Option 1 - Traditional Tools
- Pencil, paper, kneaded or big eraser
- At least one reference photo
- Micron Ink Pens (or pen of your choice)
- Brush Pen or Ink Jar and Brush
Option 2 - Digital Tools
- Latest Version of Photoshop
- Kyle's Manga Brushes (free with Adobe Subscription - download here)
- Wacom or Tablet of your choice
Optional tools I used for this demo
- TrueGrit Texture Supply Kraftone Brush set for Photoshop
- Small Wacom Tablet (I'm not that fancy honestly)
Overview
This tutorial covers some basic steps you can use to create a dragon such as the one depicted above. You won't be reproducing my exact dragon. Instead, I'd like you to create one of your own. In order to complete this tutorial you really only need pencil and paper. It's good to have some drawing experience already, but not necessary.
If you're a beginner you have to start somewhere and you're here now, so why not give it a try?
Note: I won't cover advanced digital techniques in detail, so it's important you already have working knowledge of Photoshop.
Step 1 - Find your reference photos
This one is pretty straight forward. Using the search engine, book, or magazine of your choice find at least one animal to use as reference for your dragon. However, don't box yourself in.
You may immediately think of lizards, snakes, alligators, and other scaly creatures--and that would be just fine. But don't rule out dogs, birds, or even giraffes. The important thing is to give yourself a form to work from that might resemble the shape of dragon.
A giraffe would be a great example of an animal that can help inform the shape of your dragon. You can add detail later such as a thicker or longer tail and scales. You can also use birds or bats as examples for the wings. Be as creative as you would like.
Step 2 - Sketch your dragon
Begin Sketching
Pro Tip: If you are using traditional methods, I highly recommend investing in a desk that can be angled, a drawing board, or an easel. This will help you with keeping your perspective in check.
If you are using Photoshop, I highly recommend creating multiple layers within your layers panel. Label and order them as follows:
- Color Layer 1 (optional if you plan to color your dragon later)
- Shadow Layer
- Ink Layer
- Sketch Layer
- Background layer (keep this layer at the bottom of all layers)
This makes it much easier for iterating on ideas and when you make a mistake you only need to correct one layer.
Digital Artists
With your photoshop file open and layers preset as depicted above, first make sure you have selected your "Sketch Layer." Then select your brush of choice from your available brushes. Set your brush color to a light or medium grey and follow along in the next section.
Digital and Traditional artists
With your pencil at the ready and reference photo, sketch out the basic form of the animal you've selected. You can choose to be as close to the original as possible or you can simply let your imagination flow using the photo as more of a guide to get the form right as needed.
Beginners: Don't worry about how good or bad you feel your drawing looks. Practice drawing from real life, photos, magazines, etc. everyday and you will get better. Just be consistent. Comic artist David Finch has some fantastic tutorials on YouTube for free for beginners. I would recommend starting with Composition 101.
Keep your lines light (using light pressure), fast and loose as you draw. You can refine using a kneaded eraser and lightly erasing your sketchy lines (or using one of the "Soft Round Pressure Opacity erasers in Photoshop). The goal is to get the basic form down first.
Add in some imaginative details
Once you are satisfied with the form you can add some additional details like spikes or scales. Change the eyes up, make them bigger, smaller, try a different location, add more eyes! Add wings, add that bigger tail, or maybe a stumpy one? Feel free to use your imagination or pull up some more reference photos. Remember, this is YOUR dragon, not mine. But, if you want a more traditional looking fantasy dragon, I would look to emulate creatures with scales, reptile like skin, or even bats, frogs, or toads!
Refine your drawing
If you are using pencil and paper, you can refine the form by tracing around the loose penciling you've already done and applying a bit more pressure. You should be defining the form a bit better at this point with some darker lines and smoother strokes.
Step 3 - Ink your dragon
Trace over your pencils
Digital Artists
Make sure you have selected your "Ink Layer." Then select a brush of your choice and follow along in the next section. If you downloaded "Kyle's Manga" brush set from Adobe, I would recommend selecting one of the "Basic" brushes for inking during this step and set your color to black.
Digital and Traditional artists
For traditional artists, I only ever use Micron ink pens for inking. That's just what I know best. You can use anything you like. If you prefer you can even continue using pencil and refine your dragon further instead of inking.
Pro Tip: If you want to learn more about inking comic style, checkout Inking Tools for Comics by David Finch (I can't recommend him enough!).
If you want to learn more about inking in a fantasy style, checkout this Ink Drawing video by Magic the Gathering Artist Jeff Miracola.
With your ink pen of choice at the ready, begin tracing over the form first using a more continuous line. It doesn't have to be perfect. It can even be sketchy if you're comfortable doing it that way. Jim Lee does some fantastic ink work using fast and loose sketchy lines over his pencils.
For traditional artists, if you mess up at this phase, don't throw your drawing away. Instead, think of ways to work the mistake into the drawing. Maybe there's a boulder there now, or a tree? Who's to say mistakes aren't part of the art process. If that's not going to work, you can always correct using a Presto Whiteout stick.
Add Shadows and lighting
Once you have finished tracing over your pencils using inks, it's time to apply some shadows.
Digital Artists
For digital artists, make sure you switch your layer in Photoshop to "Shadow Layer." Set the layer opacity to around 65% for now. This allows you to see your line art while you color in your shadows.
Digital and Traditional artists
For traditional artists, you can pencil in your shadows over your inked line work. This allows you to play with the lighting and values a bit before committing to heavy shadows using brush marker or paint brushes.
If you have no experience with creating light and shadow, you can use your reference photo as a guide. It may be challenging at first if this is your first time attempting to shade.
Pay close attention to your darkest shadows and your brightest areas of light. If you're using pencil, block out the areas using light and consistent pressure so that your values are all relatively the same. You should not be applying hard pressure as you will be inking over the pencils. Use your kneaded eraser as needed (no pun intended) to play around with the lighting and shadows.
Pro Tip: I would encourage you to look around your room or office for block like, cylindrical, spherical, or pyramid shaped objects. Each of these basic objects can be used to understand how light and shadow add visual dimension to objects in space.
Study how light behaves when you move these objects around on a table. If you have a lamp, set it up and play around a bit. You can even break from drawing your dragon to practice shading using simple shapes before coming back to finish it.
Once you are satisfied with your shadows you can black out these areas using a brush marker, sharpie, or paint brush with black ink. If you don't have brush markers or paint brushes and ink jars laying around, you can color in these black areas with your pen or use cross hatching techniques. Digital artists can set the opacity back to 100% to see how it looks. Continue to refine your work as needed. For more on how to ink, visit your favorite inker on YouTube or checkout one of the links in the previous steps detailed above.
Conclusion
Drawing Dragons is a fun and easy way to get into drawing, get back into drawing after some time off, or just to get the creative juices flowing if you're in the midst of some artist block. I hope you learned something new and useful from this tutorial and enjoyed the arting process! Feel free to ask me any questions and please be sure to let me know what you think in the comments below. I'd love to get some feedback on whether or not this was helpful and how I can improve my tutorials in the future.
Note: I've referenced a few artists and tools throughout this tutorial. I want to be clear that I am in no way affiliated, sponsored by, or receiving money from anyone or any company listed here or any other agency, nor do I even register as a blip on their radar.
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