Easy Step How to Draw Dragon

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!

General Anatomy: Two Kinds
Dragons aren’t real, but if we want them to look like something living in our reality, their design must obey certain rules. That’s how we decide if a creature is believable or not. The best way to ensure believability of an unreal creature is to base its design on the anatomy of real animals. If we look at the evolutionary tree, we can place dragons in two possible groups: saurischians (the dinosaurs that birds came from), and therapsids (mammal-like reptiles). Let’s take a look at their possible anatomies.

Saurischian Dragon
This could be a saurischian species that evolved membranous wings. They were created without hands, so this dragon doesn’t have arms. Probably all carnivorous saurischians were bipedal, so the forelimbs were redundant anyway. We call four-limbed dragons wyverns, and some people don’t consider them dragons, but a different kind of mythical creature. However, this type of dragon design is actually the most plausible, and that’s how they’re often portrayed in the pop culture today

Therapsid Dragon
This one has a different story. It’s closely related to mammals, so it can move like them and be quite intelligent. It’s quadrupedal like most mammals, so it can’t sacrifice its forelimbs for the sake of wings. Instead, a special mutation has gifted them with an additional pair of limbs (it actually happens in nature; see dipygus). It’s very hard to place those additional limbs in a plausible way, and the whole design is very unrealistic when you compare it to most “real” creatures. However, it’s a very attractive vision. It can be brought to life in a convincing way

Today you learned all the rules you need to create a realistic, plausible species of dragon. But keep in mind it’s all about fun—feel free to mix the features of saurischians and therapsids if your imagination allows so. Remember—it’s us who make dragons real!