How to Draw Dragons

Ahh the dragon, the one monster to appear in nearly every human culture, it is little wonder many seek to recreate it. This Instructable will attempt to shed light on drawing this marvelous creature of our imagination (or perhaps not just of our imagination?)...
This Instructable maybe slightly advanced for some beginner artists, for a very, good, very simple Instructable on drawing dragons, see How to Draw Dragons, by Keith-Kid.
This is also my answer for one of Life's Burning Questions.

Step 1: Let's Get Started...

This Instructable is to give you a brush up on dragon speculative biology (for a better understanding of how they may work), and a step-by-step on sketching a dragon.
Materials you will need to complete the drawing:

Sketch pencils, I used mostly a 0.5mm mechanical pencil with HB lead
Eraser, I personally recommend kneaded rubber erasers
Paper, I used parchment, just because I like the smoothness
Light, good lighting is essential to any artwork
Surface, to draw on, I prefer angled, but flat will do

Just because it's funny, watch this:

Comments

[claramecium]

Ditto with PetBennett.

[DuctTapeRules!]

TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR! TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR! Trogdor was a MAN! I mean, he was a DRAGON MAAN! Or, um...maybe was just a DRAGON....um... But he was still TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR! TROGDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR! Burninating the countryside! Burninating the peasants! Burninating all the peoples! In their thatch-roofed COTAGEEEEEEEEEEEEES! THATCH-ROOFED COTAGEEEEEEEEEEEEES! And the Trogdor comes in the NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! Preeeeow!

[instructamaker]

Ru having a seizure?!!!!!!!

[wolfeh334]

omg... dude what ru talking about!?!?!?!?!?

[DuctTapeRules!]

http://www.google.com

[KentsOkay]

Haha!

[ravenking]

I just had to share my dragon which I drew with my nintendo dsi....:)

[ravenking]

People have been drawing dragons since the viking age. I found a dragon artifact in a Viking knitting book along with Celtic knots. So some sources of images are surprising. I am begining to doodle my own dragons. Fun tutorial. :)

[sessions]

no ofence because because its quite cool what u've done but why go through all
the fuss when u could be teaching people how to draw cool things like dragons

[rookie1]

Greek fire, chemicals hit the air and ignite. Look it up. Scales inside the throat as well to fireproof . If a stomach can hold acid, why can't other bladders hold chemicals?

[cronama]

I... am lost.

[PetBennett]

i kind of like my dragons to have 4 legs.

[tynow]

ditto

[shanlon1]

LOLbest vid ever trog dor was a man achaly a dragon man achley he was just a dragon ................ but he was still trog dooooooooor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppppppppppppppppppiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccccc!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! vidio

[dawg065]

first things first.Dragons rule!!!! i'll admit i'm more of an writer than an artist(and a couple of my stories are about dragons.)i suppose a few examples of the dragons form can make my work a little more noticeable.thanks for the instructable.

[mslaynie]

I say this realizing that it's now 4 years after you posted this instructable. I hope you've continued to draw, because while drawing skills can improve with practice, you've got the understanding of what goes into a drawing to make it work. If you haven't kept drawing, then my suggestion is this: get a notebook and a pencil and carry it with you everywhere you go. When you get an idea, jot it down. When you see something you want to sketch, take a few minutes and sketch it.. Sketch out plans for things to make, or to do, or to write... I bet your sketching skills will improve immensely!

Because this drawing? It's pretty darn good, considering you say you aren't even a "pretty good artist." I'd disagree with you! :D

[KentsOkay]

Holy CRAP, it has been 4 years! Yeah I still draw, and Im looking at a career in Industrial Design.

[Flumpkins]

Weird... i typed in fart and this came up...

[Kolf35]

That's weird...

[KentsOkay]

It is mentioned...

[Flumpkins]

I don't see it but okay.

[KentsOkay]

Sterp 2 dragonology 101:

Fire breathing Easy, flint stones are picked up and carried in mouth, and when fire breathing is desired, they are simply clacked about with the tounge whilst the beast reverse farts (through the mouth somehow, more of a burp really). Alternatively, flammable poison may be spat and lit in the same manner. Poison spitting + fire breath would be pretty awesome...

[Flumpkins]

COOL

[KentsOkay]

Thanks!

[Flumpkins]

Yuherpm

[bowmaster]

I always though that dragons had "fire glands" much like our spit glands but filled with a flammable substance the consistency depending on the species of dragon which was ignited by a small "spark plug" between the glands.

[Jaridian]

I am no chemist, so I apologize if I sound like a moron. It doesn't make sense, that fire-breathing would require an actual ignition, unless the creatures were/are intelligent enough to understand the concept of needing tools to complete certain tasks. On the one hand, it could be argued that dragons were/are that intelligent, and understood it enough to teach their young. Leaving each young to figure it out on their own would be counterproductive to the whole point of racial evolution (whether a species survives long-term or not). More likely, it may be/have been that the hydrogen and platinum were/are combined and accelerated (possibly with a bio-acid of some sort if not methane as a byproduct of digestion (burp) and expelled with force from the mouth.
Ooh, and I did see that faux documentary, my favorite right up there with the faux werewolf one. I intend to order those on DVD ASAP.

[Bobthewrecker]

its a little girl dragon

[KentsOkay]

No, its a male dragon...

[PetBennett]

i dont care its still coolio

[Grey_Wolfe]

Reverse farts? That's actually pretty creative. Some scientists have speculated that if dragons existed, and could breath fire, then it would have been done through simple chemical reaction. The dragon would have had a gizzard of sort, like a bird, for storing ground up metals, primarily platinum (this may explain legends of dragons desiring precious stones and metals). The dragon would also have a organ for producing hydrogen gas, this also aids in flight by adding lift. When the dragon needed to breath fire it would regurgitate some of the platinum then release hydrogen through the mouth, when hydrogen reacts with platinum, it ignites, producing flames. This also suggests that the more fire a dragon breaths in a short amount of time, this harder flight becomes. This would escalate to the point of being grounded if the dragon was not careful (which explains the stories that suggest dragons only used fire as a last resort in combat). If I can find a link to this info, I'll post it. But you can probably find it at discovery channel online, since the special was on Discovery Channel. Hope this helps, or whatever. Thought you'd be interested.

[Divendren]

Ah, I saw that, at first I thought they really found a dragon, but I was left hanging in my hopes. Jk, I'm not a dragon freak or anything, but I do think they did/do exist.

[PetBennett]

i am :)cuz they r AWESOME!

[wolfeh334]

u r right in two ways a dragon would eal metal like platnum to egnite metal and hydrogen but it would also need to have a strong gas pouch. sometimes two in euro drags. also i have a pet dragon... a komodo dragon. his name is bob and he is big and fat and lazy.

[kenny94]

no, it has flammable venom that is ignited using a spark pouck that contains a spark starting metal, the pouch is in front of the first row of teeth

[Foaly7]

You know exactly what your talking about! :)

[Grey_Wolfe]

Maybe you're right. Although, from a biological aspect, it would seem somewhat inefficient to need to create a spark. Even the bombadeer beetle relies on chemical reaction to create heat, not on physical spark.

[shadowfluid]

i saw that special, it had had computer animations of examples of dragons fighting for territory and young dragons being raised and trained by their mothers.

[Grey_Wolfe]

Yep, but it used real-world physics to explain how it would be possible.

[shadowfluid]

exactly