Start Drawing DRAGONS Like This!

[@wingedcanvas]

We teach virtual art classes! 🤓 Check out our website: www.wingedcanvas.com/

[@samanthar6404]

When I draw dragons, I typically reference cats and snakes. Depending on the pose and the character, I'll use a crocodiles, horses, or birds as more references. It ends up being a collage of a bunch of different animals, which is the point! Dragons aren't real so don't need to have to be referenced on any singular thing. The stream was really helpful in learning where the idea of a dragon came from, and I'll definitely look at dinosaur and bird skeletons in the future!

[@pooksdoodle2245]

Cats are excellent dragon models, I mostly study large cat anatomy in order to draw dragons.

[@Rubywing4]

Maybe it's because of Toothless, but dragons just really gives me cat vibes, I tried making different types of dragons for a story and tried using different animals for anatomy base, a leopard, a wolf, an eagle, a komodo dragon, a deer, a bear and... a dinosaur, maybe. I was going for Fire, Frost, Forest, Sand, Night, Dawn and Twilight dragons, and I was unsure of what to use for the 7th base. I ended up liking the leopard base the best, the muscular yet sleek body, big paws, sharp claws, long torso, flexible movement, cats just feel like a great base anatomy for traditional dragons with 4 legs and 2 wings. I read somewhere that along with the bones from dinosaurs, the image of dragons were shaped by the idea of combining three dangerous predatory animals, being snakes, eagles and lions (lion for the body, eagle for the wings and snake for the tail, face and body texture, I guess). Or maybe instead of eagles it was bats, or a combination of the two. So I like giving my dragons cat anatomy and a bit of cat behavior as well. I still struggle with wings though, never sure if I want 3 or 4 "fingers" to make out the wings, and drawing the wings from different angles and at different stages of being folded vs spread out is also a struggle. Not to mention the struggle with knowing how many folds to add or how they should look. Folds are one of my weaker sides in drawing.

[@dougwark6150]

I cant draw

[@Rubywing4]

@@dougwark6150 I tell myself that I'm good at drawing, but when I then look at the things I've drawn, I realize I am actually struggling with pretty much *every single aspect of drawing.* Line art, color schemes, shading, highlighting, effects, backgrounds, landscapes, faces, expressions, clothes, folds, anatomy, poses, perspective, angles, imperfections (dirt, wounds, damage etc.), buildings, vehicles, character design, other designs, architecture, I just feel like I am bad at everything about drawing lol I feel like I'm in a weird spot where I am simultanously good at drawing and also bad at drawing. XD Then someone told me they like the aesthetics of my style, and then I realized, I don't have to be perfect at drawing, just learn a few rules, use references and otherwise learn my own art style. It doesn't have to be perfect or realistic, simply to be a style. It all comes down to practice and finding your own art style, that you are comfortable with, is easy enough that you can continue drawing that way without losing your mind, and also has its own charm, whether it looks "realistic" or "semi-realistic" like typical anime/manga, or if it looks a bit more "cartoonish" like non-manga styled cartoons/comics, unique styled anime/manga like One Piece, or even something as simple as Henry Stickmin! It may take you a few months or years, but if you keep practicing and use references - you can even go so far as to try to draw the exact same things you see on the references, but without tracing (drawing on top of the reference) - then eventually you can become good at drawing, and you may even reach a point where you can draw something from memory with no need for references (or at least only using the reference for noting certain aspects of what you are trying to draw, like how folds on baggy pants work). Even if you decide stickmen is all you can do, you can still make it work, just look at the asdf videos and Henry Stickmin. Very simple, but still looks good. Hope my words helped a bit! :)

[@doragonzx]

i advise you to also use Pterosaurs and terresterial crocodiles as references

[@TabithaRuf-v2z]

Knees. Birds have knees. You forgot the knees on that bird. All vertibrates have forward facing knees.

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

Well, all vertebrates with legs, I don't see a lot of legs on a tuna for example X)

[@radioactivepower600nanaspersec]

@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 Land/Former land animals, they meant

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

@@radioactivepower600nanaspersec If so, the term they were searching for is "tetrapod", it designates all vertebrates that has four limbs, or had ancestors in their lineage that had them.

[@radioactivepower600nanaspersec]

@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 There we go :D

[@MangoNet-fm8gq]

@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 bro be quiet

[@willowbird]

I have noticed that a lot of artists dragons are often inspired by which ever dragon media they consumed when they were younger (like HTTYD or Wings of Fire). This isn’t applicable to EVERY dragon artist (my dragons are inspired by dinosaurs because I was a massive dinosaur kid), but I have seen that it can influence what people define as a dragon and how those different dragon’s anatomy is drawn. 🐉

[@CocoDragon123]

This is very true, I love WOF and my dragon anatomy is highly influenced by the books, so I don't often reference animal pictures- unless I am drawling something like a wyvern

[@I-Eat-Leifs]

I just think dragons can look like anything! It could look like a dog and it could still be a dragon. If the artist says it's a dragon it's a dragon.

[@CocoDragon123]

@@I-Eat-Leifs Ya! As she was saying, dragons are mythical so it is up to your imagination, and you can really picture them any way you like❤

[@artisticbirdies]

very true!! i'm a massive WOF fan, and i often reference how other wof artists draw dragons. lately i've been sick of my style and trying to make it more realistic, and so i keep referencing the books. imma fr start referencing dinos and birds now lol

[@sniperscales]

You're so right about that, HTTYD is what got me into drawing dragons, but I was also a dino kid so my dragons also tend to be based on dinosaurs like velociraptors

[@2I000]

Quick correction here: The sketches beginning at 2:09 have a critical inaccuracy in the legs. The thigh bone is completely missing and they claim that the knees bend backwards. The part that bends backwards is the “ankle” of the bird. Birds may look like they have no knees or thigh but it is generally hidden under the feathers or skin. The thigh bone is also visible on the skeleton reference they are using. On the final drawing however, the artist does remember to include the thigh bone on the wyvern. The rest of the video is useful but another thing I feel that the video should have included is the importance of the large sternum. In birds, the enlarged sternum is called a keel. This bone supports the muscles that connect to its shoulders to power it’s wings. If a dragon is to realistically fly, it needs a large, muscular keel.

[@Munenia]

Yeeeees!

[@Ravin_Raven]

And the dinosaurs wrists are broken, more of a minor nitpick but still

[@twinightshifter239]

Thank you, I also commented this , though including similarities of different animal skeletons have when it comes to the type of bones but are just in different shapes

[@hime8903]

Yeah I was wondering why they didn’t follow the skeleton’s anatomy

[@feli_draws]

Yesss I was so triggered by this...

[@Dragonfanatic932]

I think cats can also be a fun reference for four limbed dragons :D but i often use a mix of snake, bird, crocodile or other predatory animals when i want to draw a dragon. Lizards can be a fun reference point for small dragons to. kinda depends on the look of the dragon i'm trying to make tbh.

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

You mean six limbed dragons, right? Because wings are limbs too. It's actually why I prefer dragons with winged forelimbs, because they are actually tetrapods, contrary to the ones with two sets of forelimbs and hind limbs.

[@Dragonfanatic932]

@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 Yea thats what i mean :D! although Drakes (the dragons without wings but four limbs) also are fun to draw with cat references. Although the heads are entirely different. Though Wyverns (Dragons with the arm wings) i tend to make more bird like in general.

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

@@Dragonfanatic932 You know, since they're not real, you can pretty much do anything with them For example the dragons I draw are all from a clade called Draconia (wich is closely related to a family of small arboreal Theropod dinosaurs called Scansoriopterygidae) and are divided into three groups, flying dragons, or true dragons (Eudraconia), wyverns (Dromaeodraconia) and drakes (Barydraconia), all of them having four limbs. This means that my true dragons would be classified as wyverns by a lot of people because their front limbs are well-developped wings, but they're not wyverns, since my wyverns are mainly terrestrial dragons (some are aquatic) with overall less developped pectoral muscles, an absence of pteroid bone and shorter arms, with sometimes very reduced wing membranes.

[@Dragonfanatic932]

@@moonekovtDragons are cool :D

[@TheCarmenStar]

waitwaitwait I am sorry and don't wanna be nitpicky especially since the video can be so useful but was anyone else bothered by the lack of actual *knees* on the skeletal sketches 😭

[@colfy3961]

same bro!!! it felt so weird without the knees like huh!!!! theyre missing a whole thigh bone!!!

[@eg-draw]

I feel even more weird because on actual art she had no problem with knees and wyvern's legs were perfectly fine. How is what happened

[@cucumpot2843]

There's also a keel missing and now, there's a human breast.

[@Vibgyor6]

Long have I waited for this moment, the moment that my favorite art tutorial channel does a vid on dragons!! YES!!

[@CollourCrow]

I love dragons 2

[@Flameyoo]

​@@CollourCrow Dont we all?

[@sociallyineptsnapper]

Please look over the other comments they got quite a bit of the anatomy they based it on wrong

[@leafy_forest]

this is just my opinion but, *the way someone draws dragons really just depends on something they grew up with. (like HTTYD, Wings of Fire, dinosaurs etc)* I read Wings of Fire so the way I draw dragons is like how the dragons in the books are designed. Because of the fact that they have 4 long legs in Wings of Fire, I look to cats for reference. For the tail, I look to lizards or so. Again, this is simply my opinion.

[@muntu1221]

The way you draw anything is based on what you reference. Since dragons aren't real, people will reference whatever image of them they prefer. Since most people do art to recreate what they enjoy already, the chances are disproportionately high that they'll reference media they enjoyed for the longest amount of time. Hence why people who enjoy anime often reference anime. That said, the way people draw anything will always depend on their references and practice. So artists that create their dragons from the ground up will almost always reference a variety of sources. Hence why most dragons in fiction look very distinct. People are still designing those, after all.

[@Munenia]

2:20 But birds have knees... And they point forward like humans, mammals, reptiles or dinosaurs... and not backwards, as you draw... You can see this even on the reference...

[@mariaeduardadasilvaantunes5661]

dragons were created as protectors, so they mixed all the scariest animals there were. That's why the asian dragon is different to the european, it took inspiration from snakes and lions/tigers, whereas the european had some traits of lizards and the famous wings like bats (imagine some medieval peasant seeing a crocodile with lion paws AND it has wings on it's back) so feel free to use a combination of creatures when referencing anatomy, and most importantly, if it doesn't make sense anatomically but makes your dragon scarier, you're doing it right

[@muntu1221]

European dragons were also based on snakes. Most dragons in mythology are, in fact, just snakes but bigger. It wasn't until heraldry that dragons became more complex, and they were hybrids in much the same way as "Asian dragons". Even still, there's a LOT more variety than DND and pop culture would have you believe.

[@silvertheelf]

Small correction; Dragons actually started with exaggerations of snakes, dinosaurs later influenced the design of dragons along with crocodiles, wild cats, birds, and various other creatures, but it’s very very clear how serpent like dragons are the further back you go with Tiamat, Leviathan, Quetzalcoatl, The Rainbow Serpent, Jormangandr, and the fact “Serpent” is the common name people used to give dragons.

[@wingedcanvas]

Good to know, thanks for the knowledge! 🤓

[@AllisonRutherford-vs4dt]

Actually it used to be drakkon or drake from norse and sami, meaning in modern English, Snake or Serpent

[@silvertheelf]

@@AllisonRutherford-vs4dt which means they started with exaggerated snakes.

[@AllisonRutherford-vs4dt]

@silvertheelf no they were originally just regular, actual, literal snakes, no wings, no magic, no breath, and there are still massive snake species left today, let alone in the fossil record from when these terms originate, they were describing actual snakes that used to exist

[@AllisonRutherford-vs4dt]

@silvertheelf also way to edit the comment I actually originally replied to where you just said serpent not "exaggerated snakes" so that it would look like I wasn't correcting your "correction" nice try

[@renealbrechtsen9743]

I never thought of using birds or dinosaurs for reference, but that makes sooo much sense

[@frostreaper1607]

Honestly, you can also use dogs, cats, and horses. For different type of dragons like lower to the ground you can easily use crocodiles and alligators.

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

"Imagine if we translated this into a dinosaur" Well, you don't have to do anything, since birds *are* dinosaurs. Also a nice reference for dragons can also be Pterosaurs, especially the earlier ones, like Harpactognathus, with their long tails and such. I actually have Pterosaurs as a little bit of inspiration for the basic wing structure of my dragons, even if they are mainly inspired by Theropod dinosaurs because they are Theropod dinosaurs (I made them evolve from a group closely related to tiny arboreal dinosaurs nammed Scansoriopterygidae) and are very bird-like.

[@yazminwolfy9839]

Someone pointed this out, finally

[@colfy3961]

why take away the bird's knees 💔 poor bird

[@SouthernObserver]

Ah, this is very helpful! I've been drawing some art of one of my kobold (aka: drake) D&D characters, but using my bearded dragon as a reference point wasn't looking like what I want. The avian anatomy makes perfect sense in retrospect!

[@AwesomeYena]

WDYM? Dragons are real! **Points at komodo dragons**

[@gray_ggk]

This video reminded me that it's been over a year since I've made proper dragon artwork lmao. I used to draw dragons a lot but their wings overwhelm me. I know how to draw them, I can draw them pretty well, but it takes way too much time and I'd rather draw a hundred hands then 5 pairs of dragon wings! I use human hands as a base for dragon wings, and as much as I love drawing hands, I hate drawing wings.

[@mantlerivan7869]

0:05 thats basically not true beacuse there is one dinosaur that we can call a dragon beacuse no one said that dragons arent a type of dinosaurs its name is yi-qi

[@GlorifiedToaster1]

I think snakes were the first inspiration, and then they thought dinosaurs were dragons. This could be the case because in Asia, dragons were long noodly bois. The hydra was a multi headed normal sized snake. South America had a long bird, and in Europe, they started out as long slender dudes with wings and arms.

[@whatever5401]

I agree. In European mythology, dragons were actually originally described as giant snakes with wings and legs barely mentioned. The "modern" depictions of European dragons (i.e. dinosaur-like giant winged lizards) only appeared in the Middle Ages, when European culture was largely out of contact with classical literature for centuries. The word for "dragon" in many European languages also translate to "dragon" (example being the Slavic zmei). The word "dragon" originate from Greek "draco" meaning "serpent". In many myths it's also said that snakes would become dragons once they reach a certain age. Which is why I think dinosaur bones being the inspiration for dragons is extremely unlikely

[@cosmicspacething3474]

Some Dinosaurs actually were reptiles too, they weren’t all from the same species. So feel free to reference both!

[@gloomyallo1830]

Every dinosaur was a reptile, they're a group of reptiles. They may have varied a lot, but they're all part of one group of animals. Whales and bats might look completely unrelated in every form, but they're both mammals and fundamentally related.

[@eg-draw]

Some..... As if some weren't 😂

[@cosmicspacething3474]

@@eg-draw They said dinosaurs in general weren’t reptiles bozo

[@dev4159]

@@gloomyallo1830 Dinosaurs were more of a mix between both birds and reptiles. Some dinosaurs just happened to be more reptile like or bird like than others.

[@miloe.3245]

⁠@@dev4159birds are dinosaurs. and dinosaurs are reptiles. not a “mix” of the two

[@artlux2462]

Not the bird having no knees 🫠

[@johnathanmonsen6567]

Counterpoint: Snakes. A lot of creatures we refer to as dragons were more technically a kind of serpent; sea serpents, Amphitheres, Lung, etc. Some of the most iconic dragon-like monsters are aligned with the Chaoskampf mytheme, which appears to have originally been a fight with some manner of sea serpent. That said, birds do lend themselves to much more interesting design, as their bodies aren't mostly taken up by a featureless curve.

[@emeraldqueen1994]

When making the Reignited trilogy, Toys for Bob used a puppy, cat & raccoon for Spyro… when he’s charging, I also see a horse 🐎

[@legend_above]

Dino nerd, (me) dinosaurs couldn't pronate there wrists and wouldn't have had the arm like structure you have instead they would just be like a spike on the end of there arm (with claws) also their vertebrae was extended past there back to give them support, fun fact birds had hollow bones so some dinosaurs had that aswell (pterosaurs are not dinosaurs and pterodactyls don't exist its pterodactylus which is the closest thing to our unproven pterodactyl)

[@honeybee6102]

Historically, dragons were also inspired by snakes and alligators as well! Explorers would travel the globe and document new animals they discovered. Some came back to Europe with stories of monstrous serpent-like creatures. It is believed that they were likely describing pythons and Chinese alligators!

[@wingedcanvas]

YES! Exactly.

[@twinightshifter239]

i don't want to be rude, but it bugs me, at 3:13 the anatomy of birds and raptor legs are wrong. They have tiny femurs, what gives the impression of a backward leg is actually their heel or what would be a heel on a human, if you take a look at human skeleton and different animals side by side , you can see the similarities with skeletal structures with the varying shapes they take for different animals

[@idk5929]

4:48 "and then a wrym is just a danger noodle" 😭

[@i9ok8u79]

what happened to the birb's legs 😭

[@AngryMothNoises]

They were not really or always dinosaur bones. They were just from large bones in general. Whale bones is a big one. The Bones of the Wawel Dragon in Krakow, Poland. They are from mega fauna bones in general. Using just dinosaurs wouldn't be accurate. I don't really think dinosaurs are the accurate way to go, but lizards like monitor lizards. They are lizards with more steps.

[@smugreptile6695]

Only thing I have to say is that the legs only appear backwards on birds because the thigh is hidden by feathers. Its still the same layout as any other animal. Enjoyed everything shown!

[@alang.bandala8863]

Excellent video, just a clarification from an enthusiast. Dragons are not only based on dinosaur bones but on other types of animals. There is just a town in Europe that has as a mascot a statue of a dragon that they said was real because they had a fossilized jaw of it. It was the jaw of a Coelodontia, a woolly rhinoceros. That and the illustrations of dragons in the Middle Ages vary quite a bit, not just being limited to reptiles but to animals like birds, a mix of lions, reptiles and eagles... ironically like dinosaurs.

[@whatever5401]

Dragons didn't originate from dinosaur bones discoveries, or at least there are no evidence to support that theory. If anything, I would argue that snakes are the real inspiration for dragons. The "modern" depictions of dragons (i.e. dinosaur-like giant winged lizards) only appeared in the Middle Ages, when European culture was largely out of contact with classical literature for centuries. Before that time, dragons in most myths were described as giant snakes with legs and wings barely mentioned. A lot of the times it's also said that ordinary snakes would turn into dragons once they reach a certain age. The word for "dragon" across most languages usually translate to "snake" in some way. Taking a snake, making it big, and giving it cool powers doesn't require that much mental effort or external factors, especially considering the fact that humans are hardwired to basically fear snakes. And if you look at dinosaur bones, you'll see that most of them do not resemble snakes at all

[@everlastingdragon4520]

Eh... one little thing: bird bones are structured the way they are moreso for strength than for weight; the struts within the bones help to keep it from deforming under the stress of flying. This makes them quite strong for their size, but when a bird's bones do break, it tends to be far worse than for a mammal because bird bones are more likely to splinter than to fracture cleanly.

[@Stalin_Gamin]

uhm why has your dragon human anotomy 😭🙏 never seen a dragon working out in the gym dawg. Is that some kind of furry dragon pr why does he have a six pack, human legs and arms?

[@liamamakickurass6930]

Okay so... As a paleontologist I wanted to cry when I saw those bird legs with no thigh bone... They do not have "bending backwards" legs. It's clear when you look at the bones, imagine if you stood up on your fingers - that's how a birds leg works. They usually just have it covered with feathers like little sticks pointing out. On both the images she showed, the bird clearly has knees and it's not missing a thigh bone and the legs are not pointing fowards. Imagine drawing a dogs leg with no thing bone. And It's not that I'm pointing out smth small, just think how huge of a mistake that is, it's like drawing a person with no thigh bone.

[@RedRaven64]

3:15 im sorry but im really nitpicky about specifically back leg anatomy, if you want to compare the bird leg to a human’s leg, it doesnt “bend backwards,” but rather the different segments are different lengths. the femur is facing the right direction, its just a lot shorter and less noticeable in birds and a lot of other animals. if you follow the leg downward, all the parts bend the correct way, but birds only stand on their toes. the knee of the bird is really high and hidden beneath all those feathers, but it still bends the correct way.

[@irkendragon]

I think the link between dinosaur fossils as the source of dragon myths is pretty weak. Certainly there are instances where we can see people finding fossils and associating it with mythological creatures of all sorts, but the stories of the creatures came first, and then were applied to found bones and fossils second. At least for western dragons there's a stronger link with more evidence connecting dragons and cultural attitudes towards snakes then there is between dragons and dinosaur fossils. Birds are still a fine reference though of course, anything flying is good to reference for a flying fantasy creature, and there are many old statues and illustrations of dragons with feathered wings just as much as there are those with bat wings.

[@whatthefanart]

I am SURE mythology of dragons have been around for centuries before the discovery of dinosaur fossils, if not even as far back as the BC period. There are dragons myths in ancient Europe, China.... and maybe even going farther back to Mesopotamia, and Sumeria?

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

Well, people were discovering fossils and were trying to explain them way before paleontology was a thing, probably since the beginning of humanity. For example, in some cultures, the fossilized teeth of prehistoric sharks were thought to be petrified tongues, and in ancient China, fossils were used in medicine because they thought crushing those bones and give them to people could heal them. Also, I know nowadays dragon is a very wide umbrella term, but it's important to note (at least to me) that it was an European creation first, even if it at the time, it already designated every vaguely reptilian creatures like wyverns or the tarasque. Other mythological creatures with superficial ressemblance had their own names in their respective cultures but weren't dragons.

[@whatever5401]

@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 I'm pretty sure snakes are the real inspiration for dragons and not dinosaur bones. Dragons were originally described in European myths as huge snakes, with the "modern" depictions of dragons only appearing in the Middle Ages. The word for "dragon" in many languages also have the basic meaning of "snake" (including the word "dragon" itself). In many myths it's also said that snakes would become dragons when they reach a certain age. And when you look at dinosaur bones, it's pretty hard to actually mistake them for snakes (I mean I kinda get mistaking shark teeth for tongues, but dinosaur for snakes?). It's not completely impossible, but by that logic dragons could've also been inspired by literally anything else that looks vaguely snakey

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

@@whatever5401 If you want to go this route, the word has deeper roots than "serpent" in some languages, from what I know, it was more related to clear vision, being visible than anything else, maybe something with a dangerous glance, so there... Also, creatures from mythology tend to draw inspiration from several sources and experiences, and evolve with them, especially when you are speaking about stuff as old as the concept of a dragon. In the case of dragons, yeah snakes (and certainly other large reptiles such as crocodiles) were likely among the inspirations, maybe also comets, but fossils were also almost certainly one of the sources too, Like, just because you personally can't imagine people creating the wildest stuff from seeing giant bones embedded in the ground (not only dragons by the way), it doesn't mean ancient folk didn't, you know...

[@whatever5401]

@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 what do you mean by "fossils we're certainly one of the sources"? If you wanna go that route then dragons could've been inspired by literally anything else, so I don't get why people are so insistent on dinosaurs being one of the inspirations, considering the fact that it's just a speculation with almost zero proof to back it up. Sure maybe they could have helped reinforce old dragon stories, but the actual idea of dragon is unlikely to have come from them. And yes while sometimes the word for dragon in certain languages don't translate to snake, in most other languages they still do, and even in those cultures where dragons weren't called snakes, most of the time they were still described as snake-like

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

@@whatever5401 Yes, dragons could have been inspired by literally anything, but it's likely fossils played a huge part in the formation of their images, considering people found fossils since way before they were identified as remains of extinct life forms, and interpreted them via their own knowledge of the world. When we don't know stuff and don't have a scientific method, we try to fill the gap in knowledge with creations from our imagination. The "fossils were likely among the inspirations for dragons" is not mere baseless speculation as you try to say, my dude, it's literally based on how people make myths. Also, it's not just that the word doesn't mean serpent in some languages, it is that its *oldest* root known, from wich every other subsequent words came from doesn't mean it, yes, with time it was associated with serpents in some languages, sometimes being synonym, but it's not it's origin. You know, it's extremely reductive of you to dismiss any other hypothesis like this, especially because you based yours on "serpent" being one of the meaning of the word in certain languages, and visibly never considered the fact that people found fossils before the creation of paleontology... Also I know you why you keep saying dinosaurs, because of the video and such, but I was always speaking fossils in general, not just dinosaurs, but that's beside the point...

[@DEZIURZZ]

THE KNEES HELP 💀

[@CallistoAndrea777]

For my breed of dragon, I like to use horses as my reference. Horses and birds but mainly horses

[@KalDoesStuff]

I tend to use a horse torso and canine legs to make the body, and the wings are mostly bird wings (I like me some feathered dragons), the rest is pretty standard. Long tail, long neck, and a raptor(dino,not bird)-like head

[@TNFStudioz]

arent two legged ones typically considered wyverns and not dragons?

[@Adeerwithnotlogic]

I like to imagine dragons to be some kind of archosaurs (Dinosaurs (INCLUDING MODERN BIRDS), crocodilians, pterosaurs and ect) or perhaps even squamates (snakes and lizards) genuinley, and sometimesi 'll refrence some mammals if they live in certain habitats or have certain thing;s to them genuinley. Dragons are super cool and i've seen some peiple make speculations that if they where real, they might be mammals too, which i love the concept of! I think that (Both for when going for a more ficitonal or scientific depiction) dragons are fun to draw just because of how creative you can be and how they appear in fiction. there's alot of dragons and alot of depictions of them, and i think it's cool. People who try and gatekeep dragon designs, and people who do usually suck

[@thebatman6201]

So im a big fan of todd lockwood's dragon art.. youve probably seen some of it. Anyway he uses cat skeletons for the traditional quadrapedal, elegant body shape. Then he ads wigs, taking from bats and birds, naturally

[@liamallenspach7679]

you messed up the bird and dinosaur legs btw

[@glitcheddragongal3402]

I draw dragons from a vibe lol dragons are magical creatures so i think they can be any shape you want Thisnis a very cool video tho! Love the referencing birds

[@KhanArtist3]

From what we know dragons probably werent birthed completely from dinosaurs, as many dragon interpretations come before dinosaurs were formally described and studied, though some fossils may have inspired dragons in some ancient myths or legends. Dinosaurs are a good starting point for internal and external anatomy but if you want them to fly look at avian dinosaurs or pterosaurs because they share the same anatomy and are much more similar than somthing like a tyrannosaurus or a lizard.

[@KhanArtist3]

Also bird have knees. The bent backward shape we often see is their ankles they just happen to be much longer than the ankles of mammals, this is called digitigrade because they walk on their digits, whereas animals like most lizards humans and bears are plantigrade because we walk on our heels. Dragon anatomy isn't that wierd if you take a lizard or a bird and give it longer arms legs and stretch its body neck and tail. Also just do what ever comes to mind! Thats how art works!

[@Draconic_Lorecraft]

As a dragonogist I would say this is really good wyvern explanation on how to draw. And I am pleased to say and note, there is a collective at anatomy for all the dragon species for a “fantasy creature”, reflective to their spine in ratio to neck and am skull. Which you displaced very well.

[@MOSSISM]

Lmao, since reading fourth wing this tutorial is a godsend

[@spookydraws2486]

i really like your videos because I really love dragons, ive drawn them since i was 4 years old but i still wouldn’t call myself a professional, one tip tho is please draw the thighs 🙏 birds have thighs as you can see on the skeleton picture and without them they can hardly walk 😂

[@francesstrong9152]

You forgot the thighs in both.

[@Azure_Creations383]

After I heard this video I got a picture of a bird traced it and made it into a dragon XD

[@wingedcanvas]

Muahaha, you have prevailed!

[@Raezwing]

Honestly I love drawing dragons, but it was always hard for me to draw birdlike wyverns, coz I usually draw wyverns with like pterosaur wings, with the hands on the wings.

[@iLoveBigKnockers]

How could you forget the femur in the sketch of the bird/dino skeleton?

[@Ravin_Raven]

Fr…

[@Ghost-wc2sn]

Don't tell me what to do

[@parakeorex]

Yi qi ??? Amboterix ???

[@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941]

Ah yes, Scansoriopterygis, marvelous little things...

[@3CrazyPeopleLol]

I usually draw dragons like how wings of fire dragons are, four limbs and two wings, exept for the silk wing tribe, which develops their wings at dragon puberty age (7) (puberty age is basically what I call that age) or I use the dragon shape of any dragon type I like from the game Dragon Adventures from Roblox (my mom banned me from playing Roblox anymore tho 😭)

[@zulkiers7302]

Question: do you do 3D, like Blender or Clay? As for Preferred Dragon Style: Dragonheart or Elder Scrolls, mostly Dragonheart. Sorry if I go on a little Dragonheart tangent... Dragonheart 1: Drago, and The basis of the entire thing Dragonheart 2: Drake, seems realistic enough, totally could have happened Dragonheart 3: They added magic, I highly doubt it was supposed to have magic, but still a good story and tear jerker Dragonheart 4: ok... Dragonheart 5: I thought all dragons were camouflagers. Shapeshifting is a bit too much on the magic spectrum. At least it was a good story, ish. Dragonheart 6: doesn't exist, yet

[@Ikari-EXE]

This video is really useful and made realise to learn bird basic anatomy so that way I can draw dragons. And I really wanna draw a mechanical dragon but never drew a dragon soooo…THANKS A BUNCH💪🏼

[@Ultra_Rossie]

You are now a part of my fav art tut channels also I would love to join the art classes but I can't cuz of me not having enough money and cuz I live in different country which means 1dollar = 65 pesos(I think) Sorry if it's sounds like I'm bragging😅

[@JoseR1207]

Interesting video. Although dragons are fictional creatures, I don't like to hide behind the fact that they are fantasy beings to make them however I want, but I like to imagine what they would be like if they were real, so the wyvern is my favorite form as it is the most plausible :D And based on animals such as theropods (especially Yi qi), birds and pterosaurs. To me the classical Dragon world be a Giant Gliding Lizard or a coelurosauravus descendant.

[@vulturedrawz]

Hi, knees do not ‘bend backwards’. Birds have knees that face forward like every other land vertebrate. It’s literally in the reference photo. They are just pointed upwards near the body a lot more and covered by fluff. The ‘knee’ you were talking about is actually an ankle

[@RaximusPrime19]

Is the setting of your campaign Urban Fantasy? Because if it's not and it's Medieval Fantasy, why is the elf guy wearing a hoodie and rabbit slippers?....

[@kamiiodragonart]

I’m not religious but in bible history they talk about dragons. I prefer to believe in any possible way they existed. I felt like u just told me that Santa is not real 😅. # delulugang XD. Skyrim forevaaaaaa

[@williejack4842]

First of all: Awesome video, but i have to say, that the Os humerus(which you call the Femur, wich is basiclly the leg aqivalent of the humerus) does not connect to the Acromium, but to the fossa glenoidalis Sorry, but i couldn't help me there. Keep up the fun videos and don't take this to serious! ;-)

[@MacnivenFantasyArt]

I don’t want to be that person, but, dragons are based on ancient water serpent myths from Africa and China. It was only once the came to European culture that they became the “dinosaur shape” creatures you are referencing. Having said that, I always like to use T-Rex and alligators for my dragon head reference, and birds, bats, and horses for the body anatomy.

[@alexanderglass2057]

Interesting thing about wingspan as far as humans and human sized creatures: I actually did the math to get about the same flight characteristics (given the foil shape caused by the wings is similar enough,) as a parafoil for bat like animatronic wings with around 40 to 25 lbs of their own weight being accounted for, (assuming a 200 LB person,) and while they would be a little awkward for doorways you can fit enough wingspan (32 feet and 2 inches not counting space between wing roots,) and wing area, (each finger of that splayed hand section in my napkin math was 6'8", with four sections and a splay angle of 192 total [44° per section] the math for the area left some gaps,) on a 6 foot tall person's back folded. I would love for an actually or someone to disprove me by actually estimating what the weight with modern materials would be for just a solid folding frame supporting a air feed fabric envelope foil like a parafoil. I tried to be very conservative and pessimistic when I did run the math, so that the characteristic goal of having a takeoff speed at around 15 miles an hour would be firmly in the realms of possibility if the math worked. I don't have the other time I did the math in front of me but I did do it again for heavier people and came up with about a 40 foot span although that version wouldn't fit through most most public doors unless the wearer ducked low. The goal of 15 miles an hour is a takeoff speed comes from the fact that most people can hit 15 miles an hour in a sprint, motorization of the thing would increase that. I hope to eventually manage to prototype something capable of leaping takeoff, what's stopping me right now from designing and making a glider initial variant is free time, sourcing materials and money.

[@lave-ash]

This is awesome! I hadn't thought of using bird/reptile bones at all and have just been using pictures of animals, but the skeletons help a *lot*. Thank you!

[@bigchungus6853]

you make a lot of good points, but warm blooded, thin, mammal/bird like dragons are so common nowadays (which I do still like) I find myself missing the old portrayals of them as essentially big fat lizards, like in shrek for example

[@Brennende_Rose]

You could technically even call the evolutionary stage between avian dinosaurs and actual birds as wyvern dragon in the widest sense, since they're basically just more reptilian birds without a beak, and then there isn't much differentiating it from a "real" dragon. Maybe the size and the feathers, but Noone sais dragons can't have wings and can't be small, so, in summary, technically "dragons" have existed :)

[@beefsooup]

im a HUGE dragon nerd and I wish dragons had a more realistic rep, I literally love this!!

[@MaloryGrimes-em1rg]

When I'm drawing dragons I usually Reference Cassowaries and Komodo dragons

[@minecraftphantom9901]

I draw dragons, wyverns, and drakes. I might need to add more fantasy dragon like creatures but with the three that I have is that the wyverns are always venomous, dragons can be venomous but less deadly then wyverns but they have a stinger or fangs like a cobra, for Drakes they are built like a dragon but they just can't fly. The only difference for a wyvern is the wings on the arms but the bat dragon species has wings for arms but have more fingers then the wyverns so that is why they are a dragon. Even though every species has lots of sub species they are almost all the same as there main species that they branched from. Though they can breed with other dragons from different sub species to make a hybrid. It would be more like making a new sub species entirely.

[@carafurry7862]

Why not reference dinosaur for dragons? That's what I like to do... I also like to throw in some other animals, Jurassic Park style. Bit of starfish here, bit of beetle there, that sorta thing.

[@tayarts12]

This is a really great video! I've had a fixation of wanting to draw dragons but I struggle with the head shapes and all the different horns or if they have fins instead. I am going to definitely study some bird dinosaur skeletons, I think this was a awesome idea to get started and feel comfortable with drawing dragons! ✨

[@mailstorminurbox]

wanna do a wyvern? take an accurate velociraptor (prehistoric planet), give it longer and bigger arms, scales, and replace the feathers with the traditional dragon wings with the membrane and stuff boom, dragon

[@Ghost_of_Silven-fj2dn]

Actually when I draw dragons I use inspiration from all sorts of animals, I don’t really want to limit my art with this. I normally use the same basic thought for each dragon: wild and intelligent. It’s kinda hard to explain farther than that, sorry.

[@hapruitt.anelthalien]

This video was great! Thanks for breaking down the basic anatomy.

[@HYPERxSONICxFANx2012]

to draw my charizard i reference alligator heads, tigers, raptors, birds, and werewolves. specifically baby alligator heads cause they have big eyes

[@_SU_RPR_]

Petition to change the general name for all dragon sub groups to the large umbrella of Dracon (DRAY-conn)

[@xAxanthicDreamsx]

Honestly one of the most helpful videos I've ever seen on this topic! Thank you so much :)

[@wingedcanvas]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Munenia]

@@wingedcanvas It's not helpful, it lies about bird anatomy.

[@wingedcanvas]

@@Munenia I'd love to know more.

[@AfterArtist]

Wait dragons are fictional- nooooo- my dreams have been crushed (Great video lmao)

[@mayowhishes]

Grr clickbait u don't actually care how we draw dragons !!! You trickster you

[@JustASleepySloth]

I would probably research dinosaurs directly in tandem with birds because the two are related but are not the same as not all dinosaurs have the same pelvic bone that links them to birds and I think its only that small portion that are actually labelled collectively as dinosaurs where as the rest are just a different kind of reptile. With dinosaurs you get the various mixtures of not just scales but proto and full on feathers but I know they're difficult to reference because of how little we know about most of them. That's where creativity comes in.

[@autumnpeters]

Actually not true. Dragons actually did exist.

[@autumnpeters]

A one point in history.

[@autumnpeters]

It's in the bible

[@hime8903]

Can you perhaps make a video on drawing dinosaurs? I know it’s a bit different since they actually existed.. but I’m really into dinos and I don’t know how to begin to learn to draw them!

[@EVOLUTIONINCARNATE]

i made a long comment but it got wiped when i accidentally deleted the tab 1. dragons arent based on people seeing fossils because the european concept of a dragon comes from serpents as the farther back you go the more snakey dragons become. as someone in paleo i hear this often and its weird because its not based on any evidence 3. if you need non-mammalian anatomy reference for dragons, using paleoartist resources are really helpful. people who draw dinosaurs really good usually draw dragons to ask paleoartist for references they have they will usually have a bunch

[@Fiercestar]

Dragon legs are like our legs, the ankle is just higher. Also wyverns and dragon are drastically different

[@taiwansouthkoreajapan]

the chinese loong / 龙 are completely diffrent from European dragons

[@nikolajilic2479]

so wyvrens artent actually defined by the number of limbs as they have been portrayed with anything from 4 to 6 and even 8 limbs but instead they are defined as being extremly venemous

[@ythe5769]

the anatomycal wing attachment example is helpful to the beginner artists with dragons but i cant come to a liking with the waist lengthening/thinning and the weight around the pelvis and the legs, that seems like a backfire while flying. Ofc the spine can be way longer but pay attention to weight allocation

[@lunerlilly]

I never thought of calling a Wyrm a danger noodle. 😂😂😂😂

[@YuriTheChaosLord]

3:53 I don't think the wings should be connected to the shoulder joint. It can be either part of the foreleg or the wings, cause it can't allow movement for both of them. It would be better if the wings had their own joint a little further than forelegs do.

[@ДаэтоОрех]

Bird's skeletons scare me. They just look so wrong

[@IzzyNoir-up9uw]

*1:02* is sragon from ljubljana, city i live close to. Happy to see it here

[@EnyaTheDrakaina]

See, When I imagine a Dragon, I imagine it somewhere between a cat and a lizard end of story.

[@kidwoodstudios8822]

Dinosaurs are not the only origin of the ideq of a dragon, they have existed all throughout human history in many different tellings and cultures

[@ItsAStrawberry]

I personly think that if you have a skeleton that looks right it looks fine. Like if you can cleary tell where all the bones are.

[@stxticnathan6627]

Scansauriopterids are a type of therapod dinosaur that are the closest thing to wyverns we have found

[@alvenkaiser4549]

I vividly remember my memory of 3 yar old me sitting down to draw, not as a game or pass time, but to draw. I drew two things that day, a spider and a dragon. Granted they were not looking like any of those two, but I remember what I was trying to draw.