How to Draw A Dragon (from Kazdrea) (Part 10)

Features of the Mountains

Dreadfully sorry about the lengthy delay; I've been tied up for a bit. As an apology, I shall set about answering some of the questions which have been popping up regarding previous installments in this project:

Q. How long has it taken to make this dragon?
A. As you no doubt are able to tell, I am something of a neophyte with computerized art, and as such went with the traditional oil painting techniques, which involve creating an extremely high-quality sketch before adding any colour. The sketch (which covers Parts 1-7) was done over the course of a couple of months, though the actual time spent working on it directly likely totalled around six hours or so.

Q. Did you come up with the storyline for the dragon?
A. I did have some influence here and there. ;)

Q. Is the dog near the end of Part 5 Mocha, your German Shepherd Dog?
A. Yes. She's 3 years old, 92 pounds, just big enough to be an Alaskan Timber Wolf, and has a penchant for falling asleep next to my computer desk.

Q. How long have you practiced?
A. Well, to make a long story short, I was told at a very young age that I had a talent for drawing, rested on my laurels without improving my art for ten years, then learned the finer points when I actually started trying to draw as a marketable skill. As the saying goes, 'practice gives XP, and XP builds levels' (or something like that ;)), and I believe that just as there are no people who truly can't sing, there are no people who truly can't draw, either; it just takes practice and training! Two things that vastly improve the look of your work beyond the initial stages are shadow and detail; master those, and its just a matter of mastering the look of what you wish to draw!

Q. tigerfire12 says: "I can draw a fairly good dragon. The only thing I can't get are the claws. Anyone got advice?"
A. Long nails help a bit ;), but to produce the most realistic claws, decide what animal style you want your dragon to be based on (bird, reptile, mammal, dinosaur, etc.) and look at real-world examples of said animal's claws (or fossil/illustration/cg examples in the case of the dinosaurs).

Q. Was the random singing in Part 8 from Disney's The Little Mermaid?
A. Yes (it's easy to get 'Part of Your World' confused with Aladdin's 'A Whole New World' ;)). I shall take this moment to mention that yes, I am taping over previous recordings to make this tutorial. You shall also find in an earlier part split-second footage of an animatronic sauropod from a 2007 excursion to the Metro Toronto Zoo!

Q. When will you be able to clue us in on Kazdrea? Is it a book?
A. As of yet I can't do too much more to clue you in on Kazdrea, though I have snuck tidbits of material into the videos (keep an eye out for a bit of the continental map and a few ancient runes from the world's first written language of dragons). Yes, Kazdrea is a book, but it is also so much more! ;)

Next time we'll deal with dragon scales!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• dragon
• Dreafar
• Kazdrea
• mountains

[CHIPstienburgh]

you should draw a draagon fighting another dragon that would be cool!! just saying

[TiaMichelle]

Hmmm...Well, there are a number of fighting dragons in the book, and a few sequences immediately come to mind which would be truly awesome to depict...but we'll see what happens with this picture first!

[iliketoskate11]

great drawing skills i got a question tho can u make a vid of ur flames im a really young age and everyone in my schools is like omg theyre wicked flames and stuff so I might put um on youtube can u too?

[TiaMichelle]

Thank you, but I'm not sure quite what you mean. I briefly considered having Dreafar breathe fire in this pic, but I decided that would be a bit hokey and unrealistic as she's just cast a spell. If you've got wicked flames I'd be happy to see them, however I'm afraid I shan't be including flames in this tutorial. However, if you want to learn how to draw lightning, stay tuned! ;)

[TiaMichelle]

The temperature is actually a couple of degrees above freezing, but the only way to tell that is from the melting of the snow on the right side of the picture. Dreafar is endothermic/warm-blooded and her thick hide grants her some insulation, but she doesn't come out often this time of year. She spends more time in her lair, which is deep beneath the mountain, where the magma mentioned in the description of an earlier installment keeps her warm.

[herpboy99]

awsome video.

your very informative.

i do have a question though.

how can a reptilian like a dragon survive in freezing cold temperature?

[5w1mm3r1105]

you have a gay voice realllyyyyyy



[ideasandthoughtsfor]

that voice relaxes me and makes me sleepy as well.. XD

[calebweberlov00]

im sure u have better drawings then this. the way u talk so greatly about the dragon would make more scene if u were drawing a grate dragon and not (like i said before) a poor excuse. next time u title something such as "how to draw a dragon" make sure u draw one. im just a regular dragon fan boy

[calebweberlov00]

lol, that dragon looks like a bitch compared to myn XD urs looks as if it is starving. whats wrong, can it not hunt well? lolz... and the pose is kinda gay, if there wasint a mountain up its ass then it will be kinda better. im not here to make fun of u (kinda) im here so u can think about drawing what a "true" dragon is, and not a starving wimp that u came up with.

[ComplicatedKO]

dude no 1 cares about what kind of rock are on the mountains and we dont care about the tempature! oh and you voice is seriously wierd!!!!!!!!!

[shadowknight259]

is that your real voice???? XD

[CoolieoNinja]

whats that furry ting at 3:08 bark bark random

[roxas21198]

sweet drawing

[sharinganker]

holy crap you didnt even use photoshop?! you did all that freehand with a mouse on MSPAINT.EXE!?!?!!??!!?? RAWRR YOU ARE TEH SKILLZ

[Ohyawellfuku]

cause dragons are BA's