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Do you have trouble drawing mythical creatures? It’s not as straightforward as drawing a frog or a car, but you have more room for creativity because no one can ever say it doesn’t look like the real thing! Once you get a simple dragon down, as instructed here, you can embellish and personalize it as much as you want.

Method:

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   Step 1: Nostrils

   Draw two “bridges” next to each other. These will become the nostrils.

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   Step 2: Nose

   Draw two lines, slightly curved, above the nostrils. This is the nose as we are looking straight on at the dragon.

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   Step 3: Muzzle and Bottom Jaw

   Draw the dragon’s muzzle and bottom jaw. Start on the outside of its right nostril then go down and around until you reach the outside of its other nostril. We drew this as a rounded rectangle shape, but it can be more circular too. Underneath this, draw another rounded rectangle but smaller. This is the bottom jaw and it should be a little narrower than the muzzle and quite short.

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   Step 4: Teeth/Fangs

   Draw two triangles, pointing down, with the base at the bottom of the larger rounded rectangle (muzzle). These are the teeth and will overlap the bottom jaw so erase the part of the jaw inside the teeth. You could also add blood to make your dragon look more menacing and violent.

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   Step 5: Head and Ears

   Draw the head shape. For this step, it may be easier to copy the diagram shown. It is another arc started from just outside of the right nostril to just outside the left nostril. Don’t forget to draw the ears. In this guide, the ears are floppy so the shape (on the right side) is similar to an “S”. Draw the ear and then draw a bit of the inside showing. If you prefer, you could make the ears pointy so your dragon appears angrier.

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   Step 6: Features

   Draw the eyes and horns. The type of eyes you draw influence whether your dragon appears cute or angry. We used tall semi-circles with a large-ish dot for the pupil. The horns are like triangles with curved bases. You can make the horns much longer and curvier if you want. Erase line inside the horns. Add any other facial features you want, such as eyebrows. Now you have finished the head – onto the body!

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   Step 7: Belly

   Draw a long, large teardrop shape starting underneath the dragon’s chin to create its underbelly. It needs to be as long as you want your dragon’s body to be, but a little thinner. Draw several, evenly spaced, curved, horizontal lines across it.

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   Step 8: Body and Legs (The heart is just to demonstrate the shape)

   Draw a long line that starts following the straight edge of the tear but doesn’t curve – i.e. a slanted line. It should start almost at the corner of the jaw and go roughly halfway down the dragon’s body. When it has reached this point, make the shape of half a heart (as shown) in order to create the dragon’s leg. You should repeat this on the other side of the dragon.

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   Step 9: Feet and Bum

   Draw the feet. Again, the shape is difficult to describe and it’s best to look at the picture. The heart veers away from the dragon and then down. There are three stubs for toes as the line goes back towards the dragon. Then there is an arc for the bridge of his foot until his heel, where there is another toe stub. The foot finishes so the line goes upwards but after it goes up a little way it starts to go down to meet the bottom of the dragon’s tummy.

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    Step 10: Claws

    Draw the claws on his feet. The nails look like upside-down shark fins, i.e. triangles with one side curved out and the other side curved in.

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    Step 11: Bony Arms

    Add short, bony arms. Draw two parallel lines with round “knobs” at the joints. You will probably want to experiment with different poses. You can also make thinker arms for an chubbier dragon, or thicker arms with some muscle-definition for a really strong dragon.

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    Step 12: ‘Foreclaws’

    The “foreclaws” are drawn similarly to the feet however they only have fingers — no back claw as the feet have. This dragon has three, but yours could have as many or few as you want.

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    Step 13: Wing Humerus/Radius

    Draw a quite long diagonal line up from the neck then go down for the same length (not very steeply). These are the main bones holding the wing (called the ‘wing humerus/radius’).

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    Step 14: Wings

    Draw a curved line down from the end of the wing radius. Draw the bottom of the wings in a sort of web shape and then join them back up to the body just underneath its armpit.

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    Step 15: ‘Wing Phalanges’

    Draw ‘vertical’ lines on the wings for the rest of the skeletal support. These are the ‘wing phalanges’. Some people find it easier to do this step (15) prior to step 14.

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    Step 16: A dragon’s tail

    Finally, add a tail. The tail really makes your dragon so make it long or short, pointy or rounded, thin or thick. In this example, it has a spade-tip. You could also end it with a tuft of fur, like the end of a lion’s tail.

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    Step 17: The End

    Colour it in! You can be as creative as you want. However, the most common color for dragons is green; bright and mettallic colors are also very popular. Many dragons have temperments and abilities indicated by their colors: an angry, fire-breathing red dragon; a calm, ice-breathing pale-blue dragon; a blue dragon with gills and flippers; an acid-spitting neon green dragon. If you want, you could add a background, such as sky or a lake or mountains.