How to Draw a Dragon

By Kenny Leones

Starting with its head, a dragon is usually crowned with horns. You may want to draw a pair each on the left and right sides. Before you do that, however, it would be best to profile the entire shape of the head like a funnel or a short trumpet, the narrowing shaft being its face and snout. The broadest end of this conical structure will be its head that, if we imagine, will also constitute its crown of many horns. It will also look good that the encirclement of this crown of horns terminates at the sides of its jaws.

Draw the horns of a dragon's head straight and diagonal. Experiment on the pattern of horn growth. You may have the longest ones planted at the forehead with a progression of little ones going to the sides, or the other way around.

A dragon's ears look like wings at the sides of its head, giving more to the illusion of width to the creature's head. With the working of the elongated horns, the dragon's head appears to be frilled.

Dragons have a narrow elongated snout than dinosaurs for spewing fire. In relation to this unique ability, draw its nostrils wide.

Dragons also have thicker brow ridges that protect very large eyes. Because of its role as a treasure guardian, you may want to make the viewer feel that these eyes could pan to a fair lateral distance without moving its head. In treating the pupils, some dragons have theirs cat-like-a vertical black line, slightly thickening at the mid-length; others have a dot within a circular outline.

In addition to protruding facial bones, a dragon has unmistakably large cheekbones, draw him like he was always smiling. This smirk becomes more apparent because a short distance below these bones curls the edges of the dragon's mouth.

Remember that a dragon is covered in scales, especially around the neck. The scales are smaller or fewer before and upon reaching the face. Drawing the scales can be tedious as they look like an armor of tiny overlapping metal shields. Because they run in a pattern, draw them the way the impressionists suggest the presence of leaves in a tree: a cluster of the pattern here and there.

The back of the dragon, from its neck to its tail, is often lined with dorsal plates, like those of a stegosaurus, or caudal spikes, as those that stand at the end of the said dinosaur's tail.

Many artists today are leaving the pot-bellied dragon for a shapelier muscular one. The latter has a narrower abdomen and a more massive upper body. The forelimbs are human-like muscles. The hind legs, however, are more avian. Large dragons are frequently drawn with their limbs utterly bent, like a reptile hugging the earth; smaller ones have theirs stretched upright like a cockatrice.

Lastly, if you must provide wings, make them large and retain the leathery bat-like quality.

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