I needed this video 5 years ago 😢

This is so helpful. I never understood the basics before. Thanks so much!

The great thing about drawing dragons is that they are mythical! I just love trying to draw dragons of all shapes and sizes; in fact, taking a random animal and trying to make it into a dragon is a super fun way to practice drawing all those body types and features!! The sheer creativity that comes alongside drawing a dragon is what makes the process so enjoyable! Great video :DD

It's always great to get insight from other artists! Turns out you construct your dragons very similarly to me haha. It's great what a basic understanding of anatomy can do for you! Wonderful vid :)

So I've been in an art funk for a while. I've felt like my art just sucks, and I don't know what to do. This video was just what I needed. Thanks, Bella ❤

I've decided a long time ago that dragons get dog/cat paws. I am just terrible at drawing talons, and so i just don't try anymore just so i don't lose my mind- I love how you explain things, very comprehensive for beginners :) I personally like more chunky necks, so it feels like their neck can't simply be broken by a stray pebble. Also, I put wings right over the shoulder.

I think this tutorial is a really great way to show how to do perspective. Personally, I’ve had problems with the thickness of the wing bones and the way the talons look on their arms and legs. I think a major problem I’ve been having stems from not tapering off the legs. (Also personally I like adding a protrusion on the shoulder when connecting the wings to the body, like there’s an extra joint where the wing bone attaches.) Thank you for the in depth, high quality, and easy to understand tutorial Bella!

As someone who struggles with perspective and ofc anatomy, I love this video so far (not done watching lol) A personal thing though is that I hate almost everything I draw so it's very hard to hear "look around you and reference other artists to find your style" for the five quadrillianth time and yet even after four years I'm still considered a beginner. I even feel as though I have a basic understanding of anatomy as a whole, it's everything else I'm struggling with. Eye placement, mouths, perspective, all of that is absolutely rough for me. So I hope I can find a tutorial or at least a way of thinking that explains how to not hate your own art or something like that, how to avoid the "gunky brain" that I get when I can't draw well (Sorry for over sharing)

i find it super interesting how you think of the different body parts as different parts found on other animals! especially with you connected that back leg and describe it as a dog's leg--that was so helpful because i'd never thought of dragon anatomy like dog's anatomy, more like cats. but yea i definitely enjoyed this, as did everyone else i can assume, and i think i speak for us all when i say that i'd love another tutorial!!!! keep up the good work, you are my idol when it comes to wings of fire :)

Absolutely wonderful of you to make this video, Bella! It's always great to see how other *rather amazing* artists go about, in their art styles. I believe this would be very helpful for newer artists like myself to better understand how perspectives work!

jesus christ i didn't think it would help me to such a huge extent, thank you one billion times

This way of drawing has actually helped me draw many animals, not just dragons! With this way of drawing, I’ve actually been able to draw a horse that doesn’t look crappy!

Ty Bella for making this video! I love the way you draw wof dragons it’s so amazing!

I beg for you to do perspectives with heads and faces this already helped out with doing a new perspective for my art and omgggggg thank you sosososososo much my art will turn out so much better thanks to you.

As someone who has never drawn a dragon, this was so freaking helpful! I can now draw a dragon for my dad thank you!!

Most of this I already know as an animal artist (cats, dogs, etc.), but it's cool and helpful to see it applied to a dragon form, thanks!

This actually really helped me with 3/4ths dragon perspective, tysm!

My favorite thing for dragons is looking at other animals! Dragons, depending on which you're doing, have a HUGE variety of designs you can go for and still look like a dragon. You can look at head shapes like an axolotl's or a komodo dragon's, or even look at stuff like tuataras or lizards! You can give them paws, bird feet, lizard fingers, etc. Basing dragons on real life means that not only do you have a HUGE array of options, but you also have an even bigger amount of refs! Not just drawings but real life examples, too! This specially helps if you're trying to animate it or make fluid scenes.

Very informative review! I’m sure this will help a lot of people that struggle with the basics. Although as a nerd, I must add my own thoughts on the wings. The “skin pocket” that you describe seeing other artists add, is meant to emphasize muscles at the base of the wing, but I also like to use that point on the body for another thing as well. The membrane on bats wings and on animals like flying squirrels is called a “patagium” and bat wings have something called a “propatagium” which extends from the shoulder to the hand of the wing. I depict the propatagium as folding slightly underneath the shoulder towards the stomach, with that area serving as the base for the arm of the wing and the propatagium. I also must point out that the “elbow finger” on the wing does not make anatomical sense as a bony appendage like the actual fingers of the wing. How are you going to bend your elbow if there’s a bone right on the joint you know? I personally never draw it, but I have seen other artists interpret it as boneless and more like a string of muscles meant to stabilize the wing, and I think that works a lot better. Bottom line though, I think it’s important to emphasize that dragons are not real, and can be interpreted in many different ways depending on what animals you take inspiration from. As you said it’s important to have an understanding of anatomy before you jump into drawing. I personally think it’s also helpful to visualize the kind of environment a dragon lives in and take inspiration from animals that also live similarly to that dragon. Great video, works really well as a stepping stone for artists!

Also to draw you need Motivation I suggest looking at the world like Bella says or listening to things that make you feel happy or motivated like music i listen to a lot of music that give me drawing ideas and one I like a lot is High Hopes Ain’t Worried.

Holy moly please make more of these this is the first time I’ve been able to actually draw something that isn’t a stick figure lmao this is awesome

I’m so lucky this video was uploaded, dragons are so complicated for me, they’ve always been a problem because I tried to make a story where a group of cats find a cave leading to an underground dragon city.. but there’s the problem.. I didn’t know how to draw the dragons 😅

Yay! Thank you, Bella! I've been wanting a tutorial from you because you are one of my favorite artists/animators. I've watched other stuff but I think it was way too early to draw that sort of stuff. Now I'm advancing and I found this tutorial helpful for me, such as explaining how to look for references. I often get a reference picture and then start drawing what is there without really learning much and just left me feeling agitated. Now I know what I should do with reference. Hope to see more of this!

Btw guys when drawing dragon wings bat wings are your best friend. Bat wings are usually very similar to dragon wings.

Omfg TYSM!I needed this desperately so I could upgrade my dragon drawings

This really helped thank you🥲 and when you said "Don't be hard on yourself" that really hit hard😭

I used to draw dragons every single day in middle school and I’m trying to get back into it, I love your tutorials!

This video is absolutely amazing, I love this. Please make a headshot tutorial on how to draw dragon heads from different angles :)

For me, calling them "thingies" or "these bits" is a lot more helpful then actually naming their parts, idk why, which is to say I liked how you explained things!

I don't draw dragons as much as I used to, but this helped with angling the snout and horns.

Yippeee! The beasts!

Amazing tutorial! This def helped out but also made me realize that my anatomy wasn't as bad as I thought it was, when I was watching this I was a bit shocked at how much it made me realize that my art wasn't as bad or just wonky as I always saw it as! I really think you should make more tutorials on things like this, for someone who never liked their art this much this helped me A LOT to see that my art is something far more great then I think it originally was! I DEF think you should make more videos like this, maybe the next one can be a shading guide/rendering for dragons👀

The tutorial I really needed is here, thank you sm!

hooray! hooray! happy mulchmas! i love mulch!

This was very helpful! I draw dragons all the time, but I've always struggled with a lot of things, and this video helped me understand their structure a lot better.

Ty bella, I never really knew where to start when learning but this guide really helped me, thank you!

thanks for this

Ooh, seeing someone elses dragon guidelines is really helpful! Dragony anatomy has always been a struggle for me, so this really was helpful!

ty for this

Finally a good tutorial about how to draw a dragon ty! :D

Thank you Bella! I've really wanted to improve my drawing skills but I mostly just copy references of things without expanding my understanding of how the pose/position works. This really helped me so thank you so much! ❤

wowza! A+ video I will say but I feel like I need to add the fact that; if you want to stylize you need to understand it first. not full realism, but before you stylize, test and see what you like! You are allowed to see stylistic choices from other artists and incorporate it in your style, but it takes TIME and PATIENCE! But always, always understand before stylizing! I call it the LUPE. L -- LEARN what your gonna do and how to do it U -- UNDERSTAND the subject you're drawing and the 3d space around it. test and see what you like. P -- PRACTICE before stylization E -- EXECUTE your art style and express yourself!! Bonus; H -- Have fun, dont push yourself.

Drawing two semicircles for the front talons is genius. I gotta go try that

On Reddit a lot of people were saying they use dogs as references for dragons. Thanks for the video, it’s helpful.

I’ve been struggling to get good anatomy recently and I never realized how necks work until like two days ago so this helps with that yayyy

This is a really good tutorial! I've always wanted to draw good dragons, and now I've tasked myself to animate one just to get the wheels turning and learn it 💀This is a very informative resource! Seeing how you envision them in 3D and what connects to what really opened my eyes!

AHHHHHHH THIS HELPED ME SO MUCH!!!! THANK YOUUUUU!! I use the lighting bolt shape for all of my creature drawings and it helps a lot. Also the chest/body helped me a lot! I never thought about drawing the body like that. And the 3d head is so useful because i’m not the best at drawing perspective or things in a 3d dimension. For toes i usually go with a gecko-esque look, with a thin beginning of the toe and a BEEEG fat chonky end of the toe. I do the same thing with forelegs, but I’ll definitely use the scoop method that you used. This tutorial was great and simple, thank you!

I love how you have a phrog in the bottom left corner!!!

ive drawn almost nothing but dragons for 2 years.. and i still need this video

I'm currently trying to learn to draw dragons and this video has helped me alot!! tysm!

i didnt know hpw it worked ty for the tips and drawing

this vidoe is so helpful but as a non digital artist the amount of times you deleted a line ways so frustrating 😭

Came to watch how to draw dragon, came back to paper knowing how to draw dragon. But seriously bella this tutorial is super great thanks for making it :)

Wow! I always adored artists who could draw larger animals like this so gracefully, but your video really made it easy! My first go even looks decent, using my knowledge of cats and deer for reference. Thanks Bella! Really appreciate it! :>

heck i just realised, i was drawing wins wrong, they are just go foward like planks and never start to curve at my arts!

THIS IS SO HELPFUL OMGGG!!! now ik how to draw more poses, more full body's without being scared ill mess up!! Tyy bella!!!^^

Usually when i draw dragons i draw the front legs like human arms, i never knew another way. Great vid!!!!!

Was struggling with trying to draw one of my favorite scenes from WoF, thanks for this!

This video is both informative and hilarious

This video is soo helpful! I really liked how you explained how to use references of like anoto y and stuff and how to apply that to dragons!

this had been so helpful and I can finally understand. Thank you SO MUCH

ahh thank you so much!! I’m very new to drawing dragons, and some of the anatomy really confused me, but you explained it all very well!!

Some tips ive found:: Dragon anatomy is basically the same as human anatomy just weirdly proportioned !! Knowing human anatomy helps with drawing dragons, and there are way WAY more references of humans. The arms are essentially the same, the hands (just with claws), the ribcage is the same(but larger). Knowing the basics of muscles will also help to construct harder bits like the back legs and wings (wings are basically big arms with giant weird hands). Again learning planes of the face of humans and other animals helpsxwith faces of dragons. It helps to think of it further as a 3D shape and not just a 2d thing Gesture drawing!! Again another human reference thing but learning this as well as a line of action will help make your poses less stiff and more dynamic Just draw a whooole bunch of 3d shapes . This is a good warm up and helps learning form ! Draw a bunch of cubes, prisms, spheres, then start coming up with weird shapes of all types. Drawing contour lines to make them look 3D. Try cutting these shapes in your mind and drawing those, adding them together, sculpting bits onto those, drawing cross sections

Why is that flat dragon better then anything ive drawn in my 6 years of art 😭🤚

this helps a lot thanks ima try updating my style with this

Thanks. I can draw but I don't usually draw animals/monsters but I need to for something so this helps

This is so awesome and very helpful! Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. Stay safe and well, and may beautiful colors fill your world! 🌈❤

I just got a tablet to try out digital art as of you uploading this and it was very helpful.

Omg I needed this so much

Thank you!!

This was so helpful! The end tho- 😭😭

OMG I NEEED to understand how to DO an open mouth! Love the video, very helpful!!!

This is so helpful

Great tutorial I really needed this you got a new sub!

My dude you literally posted this after I went to sleep*sob*

Ty. I always struggle drawing dragons so I needed this Edit: i just realized the reason I dont struggle with legs is because I draw canines a lot and they both have similar legs.

I did not know I needed help on the legs! This has helped me understand those more, thank you But I'm having trouble with structuring the mouth... I dont know how to do the bottom jaww 😭

This was great, your dragon is really majestic!

This worked 👍 im gonna try to give it more style

if you ever plan another tutorial, i feel that you would make a great dragon teefs one, love the video though, gonnna try it in my next works! :)

Bro just roasted my dragons in 50 different ways 💀

This is so helpful! I’ve always had issues with anatomy! I will be using your tips! Thank you!

Thank you bella for the in-depth tutorial 🔥

tIpEe tOe fOoTy FoOt tHiNg got me dying

This is super helpful!

*This is sooo cool!*

I love your artstyle it’s so pretty!✨

I reference dinosaur, pterosaur, bat, bird and cat skeletons

Ur such an artist!! Ur atonomy in arr is amazing!!🤩

OMG THANK you so much I need this so badly😊

You’re like a wise owl Thank you for sharing your wisdom :)

Thanks for this video bella! I appreciate it! I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten better at anatomy but I just needed some tips for my improvement

Thank you bella! This helped out a lot, I was having some trouble posing!

Thank you for making this video.

Tysm for this it was very helpful! Btw what brush do did you use in this video? (Im sure u get asked that alot lol)

Well, time to redraw every dragon I’ve drawn lol

Thank you a lot i have a problem drawing the LEGS

Tyyy for making this , is difficult to study dragon anatomy theres no irl reference of them 😭

That looks awesome but…. The way the dragon wing thumb be lookin 😂💀

THANKK YOU I WOERSHIP THY GREAT BELLASAURUS NOW