We teach virtual art classes! 🤓 Check out our website: www.wingedcanvas.com/ 🍎 If you're a teacher, we've created a How to Draw Dragons - Character Design Video Art Project if you're interested in step-by-step video lessons for students to explore their creativity! Get it here: bit.ly/3NNmClS Bookmark our Treasure Chest for Art Teachers: www.wingedcanvas.com/art-resources-for-teachers
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!
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 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! :)
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.
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
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. 🐉
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
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
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
@@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.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
@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
@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
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
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.
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.
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...
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 😭
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.
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!
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.
@@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.
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.
"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.
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!
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!
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.
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💪🏼
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.
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! ✨
I LOVE drawing dragons! My favorite reference for dragon anatomy is my cats. I watch them and their movements and try to recreate that in my dragons. Or I’ll pull images from google and use them as a reference
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
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
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!
Very good idea with using dinosaurs as a reference! For my dnd world all my dragons are descended from a real dinosaur called Yi Qi, which essentially looks like a tiny wyvern! If people are looking to do a more bird-like design that still has the classic dragon features, definitely look up this little critter for some inspiration
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.
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.
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
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
I'm absolutely great with drawing dragons and I see them almost as both bats and birds but I take this to a whole other level and made them look like primates but gave the reptile look
For my dragons, since I tend to draw the traditional 4-legged, 2-winged variety, I've used the large chest of a horse as well as just the overall horse anatomy for the body, combined with the legs of how I draw my wolves/cats. Regarding the wings, I always reference bat wings.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
This video is so true I love dragons in fact it was one of the things that drove me to art and writing. But win as was starting out I tried to mimic the stile of the how to tran your dragon movies I had seen but when I stopped trying to make it off of something I was good at like in my case I love drakes and wyvern’s as they are my favorite ones to draw I released the fact that art is what you make when you pull form what you know instead of what you don’t you do much better and I will tell you this that if you feel like your art isn’t good enough look back on your inspiration what it tells you and how it inspires you personally. For me I use my emotions and focus them into my art to draw it in a way that gives my art a sorta soul with it so it can be useful to put a muse in your work it helped me and it can hopefully help you to.
Wyverns and birds have dramatically different wing structures! What wyverns usually have is bat wings, this is important because the fundamental wing shape drastically changes how something could fly, most birds fly mostly based on moving forward and gliding, with the exception of a few like humming birds. Bat wings are shaped so that they can hover and fly in every direction.
@@eg-draw Nope, wrong wing structure! Only very few birds, the two I know being a type of blood drinking bird and a humming bird, can fly in any direction and on spot. Most can only fly and or glide forwards.
I used to just draw dragons from my mind when I was younger, and my biggest inspirations were the eragon books (and the movie for design reference) and the HTTYD franchise. Nowadays, My main inspirations are dinossaurs and Other peoples' art, because everyone has a different interpretation and I absolutely adore seeing how everyone comes up with different concepts to how a dragon should look like! And cats are also amazing for designs
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 😂
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.
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
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.
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)
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
@@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
@@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...
@@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
@@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...
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
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
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.
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
This is so fun like i wanna make a story whit dragons and my dragons gona be mamels and i found itt interesting that there is different kind of names for different kind of dragons i whant my dragons to all have wings but that also mean i can trowe in a little bit of variation😁
We teach virtual art classes! 🤓 Check out our website: www.wingedcanvas.com/
🍎 If you're a teacher, we've created a How to Draw Dragons - Character Design Video Art Project if you're interested in step-by-step video lessons for students to explore their creativity! Get it here: bit.ly/3NNmClS
Bookmark our Treasure Chest for Art Teachers: www.wingedcanvas.com/art-resources-for-teachers
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!
Cats are excellent dragon models, I mostly study large cat anatomy in order to draw dragons.
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.
I cant draw
@@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! :)
i advise you to also use Pterosaurs and terresterial crocodiles as references
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.
Yeeeees!
And the dinosaurs wrists are broken, more of a minor nitpick but still
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
Yeah I was wondering why they didn’t follow the skeleton’s anatomy
Yesss I was so triggered by this...
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. 🐉
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 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.
@@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❤
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
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
Knees. Birds have knees. You forgot the knees on that bird. All vertibrates have forward facing knees.
Well, all vertebrates with legs, I don't see a lot of legs on a tuna for example X)
@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 Land/Former land animals, they meant
@@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.
@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 There we go :D
@@nabuchodonosormcgalapatram6941 bro be quiet
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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.
@@moonekovtDragons are cool :D
Long have I waited for this moment, the moment that my favorite art tutorial channel does a vid on dragons!! YES!!
I love dragons 2
@@CollourCrow Dont we all?
Please look over the other comments they got quite a bit of the anatomy they based it on wrong
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.
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.
Based.
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.
Good to know, thanks for the knowledge! 🤓
Actually it used to be drakkon or drake from norse and sami, meaning in modern English, Snake or Serpent
@@AllisonRutherford-vs4dt which means they started with exaggerated snakes.
@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
@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
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
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.
I never thought of using birds or dinosaurs for reference, but that makes sooo much sense
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.
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...
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 😭
same bro!!! it felt so weird without the knees like huh!!!! theyre missing a whole thigh bone!!!
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
There's also a keel missing and now, there's a human breast.
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.
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!
Some Dinosaurs actually were reptiles too, they weren’t all from the same species. So feel free to reference both!
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.
Some..... As if some weren't 😂
@@eg-draw They said dinosaurs in general weren’t reptiles bozo
@@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.
@@dev4159birds are dinosaurs. and dinosaurs are reptiles.
not a “mix” of the two
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.
"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.
Someone pointed this out, finally
*1:02* is sragon from ljubljana, city i live close to. Happy to see it here
Not the bird having no knees 🫠
im a HUGE dragon nerd and I wish dragons had a more realistic rep, I literally love this!!
4:48 "and then a wrym is just a danger noodle" 😭
Honestly one of the most helpful videos I've ever seen on this topic! Thank you so much :)
Glad it was helpful!
@@wingedcanvas It's not helpful, it lies about bird anatomy.
@@Munenia I'd love to know more.
FINALLY someone made a dragon anatomy videoooo
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!
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!
This video was great! Thanks for breaking down the basic anatomy.
This is huge. I always tried drawing dragons from reptiles but birds totally make sense!
Lmao, since reading fourth wing this tutorial is a godsend
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.
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💪🏼
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.
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! ✨
I like your wyvrn and i love the two well known ones 4-6 limbs
I LOVE drawing dragons! My favorite reference for dragon anatomy is my cats. I watch them and their movements and try to recreate that in my dragons. Or I’ll pull images from google and use them as a reference
I am now going to have a sketchbook full of dragons so thank you
When making the Reignited trilogy, Toys for Bob used a puppy, cat & raccoon for Spyro… when he’s charging, I also see a horse 🐎
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
you are really nice to listen to, thank you
WDYM? Dragons are real!
**Points at komodo dragons**
I’ve been waiting for this for so long!!!
Pterosaurs/flying reptiles are also a good way for wyverns
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
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!
YES! Exactly.
Bro just got me those twelve years of art classes i missed in this one video
Very good idea with using dinosaurs as a reference! For my dnd world all my dragons are descended from a real dinosaur called Yi Qi, which essentially looks like a tiny wyvern! If people are looking to do a more bird-like design that still has the classic dragon features, definitely look up this little critter for some inspiration
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.
How is your linework so PERFECT?? :0
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.
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
1:01 ! thats Lubiana's stantue of the dragon!!! i belive they said there were real sightings many, many. years ago, ( IM NOT SURE) :3
For my breed of dragon, I like to use horses as my reference. Horses and birds but mainly horses
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
big cats are also good inspo for the anatomy because they are very large and powerful and their feet are so much easier to draw
I'm absolutely great with drawing dragons and I see them almost as both bats and birds but I take this to a whole other level and made them look like primates but gave the reptile look
"a wyrm is just a dangerous noodle" XD 😂
I do like this wyvern dragon
THE KNEES HELP 💀
For my dragons, since I tend to draw the traditional 4-legged, 2-winged variety, I've used the large chest of a horse as well as just the overall horse anatomy for the body, combined with the legs of how I draw my wolves/cats. Regarding the wings, I always reference bat wings.
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.
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
The moment I saw this video
I immediately knew that I will watch it this day
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.
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.
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!
why take away the bird's knees 💔 poor bird
4:47 "and then a wyrm is just a danger noodle" I laughed for so long after I heard this
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.
I have never drawn a dragon. This video made me less scared to try :)
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!
This video is so true I love dragons in fact it was one of the things that drove me to art and writing. But win as was starting out I tried to mimic the stile of the how to tran your dragon movies I had seen but when I stopped trying to make it off of something I was good at like in my case I love drakes and wyvern’s as they are my favorite ones to draw I released the fact that art is what you make when you pull form what you know instead of what you don’t you do much better and I will tell you this that if you feel like your art isn’t good enough look back on your inspiration what it tells you and how it inspires you personally. For me I use my emotions and focus them into my art to draw it in a way that gives my art a sorta soul with it so it can be useful to put a muse in your work it helped me and it can hopefully help you to.
Wyverns and birds have dramatically different wing structures! What wyverns usually have is bat wings, this is important because the fundamental wing shape drastically changes how something could fly, most birds fly mostly based on moving forward and gliding, with the exception of a few like humming birds. Bat wings are shaped so that they can hover and fly in every direction.
Birds could fly in any direction or even on one spot as well.
@@eg-draw Nope, wrong wing structure! Only very few birds, the two I know being a type of blood drinking bird and a humming bird, can fly in any direction and on spot. Most can only fly and or glide forwards.
Crocodilians being the next closest relative of dinos makes me want to make a dragon bases more on one those boyos too.
I used to just draw dragons from my mind when I was younger, and my biggest inspirations were the eragon books (and the movie for design reference) and the HTTYD franchise. Nowadays, My main inspirations are dinossaurs and Other peoples' art, because everyone has a different interpretation and I absolutely adore seeing how everyone comes up with different concepts to how a dragon should look like! And cats are also amazing for designs
I'll use a bird as a reference whenever I draw Wyverns, but for western dragons (my favourite Dragon to draw) I'll use Tigers and other felines
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 😂
It would be interesting to see dragons based on bats
YAY THANK YOU !!!!
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.
I never thought of calling a Wyrm a danger noodle. 😂😂😂😂
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
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.
thanks this will help me draw dragons. Specifically from the "Wings of fire book series"
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)
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
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.
to draw my charizard i reference alligator heads, tigers, raptors, birds, and werewolves. specifically baby alligator heads cause they have big eyes
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.
Scansauriopterids are a type of therapod dinosaur that are the closest thing to wyverns we have found
I'll improve on your methods 🔥
I like to draw my dragons like dinosaurs. Basically my dragons are just scaled up yi qi’s so mostly feathered but webbed wings.
hey, what art app were you using in this vid? i want to know because I want to start online art.
Wait dragons are fictional- nooooo- my dreams have been crushed
(Great video lmao)
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?
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.
@@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
@@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...
@@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
@@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...
Dragon legs are like our legs, the ankle is just higher. Also wyverns and dragon are drastically different
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
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
Dragan divercety accepted ❤ yipppeeee
hi you forgot the keel wich is the huge thing in the chest that makes them able to fly
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.
They do to exist!!!
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
This is so fun like i wanna make a story whit dragons and my dragons gona be mamels and i found itt interesting that there is different kind of names for different kind of dragons i whant my dragons to all have wings but that also mean i can trowe in a little bit of variation😁