These illustrative Journals are my way of sharing tips and tricks and knowledge that I've acquired over the last few years in the illustration industry. I'm simply sharing it with you all in the hopes that it helps somebody. If you too would like to offer some tips and tricks, please note me and I'll include it. This is for those who wish to learn after all.


So, two weeks ago I spoke about realism in fantasy art. This subject can be applied to any genre. It was my intention to expand on it last week but alas life got in the way and I decided to hold off until this week. Last time we focused more on people, how about we touch on creatures this time. You agree? Good.

So, here's the problem. Say you wanna draw a dragon. You want it to look realistic – and everyone tells you to observe from life..... but the closest you got to a dragon is a gecko reference you found online, and lets face it – sometimes you don't want to draw a dragon that looks like something that's actually in our daily lives, often enough you wanna draw it in a way that makes everyone think that it could exist.... y'know, if physics weren't always in the way.

That sounded like a complicated way of saying it.... but hopefully you understand my meaning. The lamest way of saying it? You can't reference everything, but sometimes you want it to look just as if you did.

So lets get to work. First of all, right out of the box you probably shouldn't just take a piece of paper, draw a dragon without thinking and hope that it'll work. Hope doesn't teach. However, you can build up to it through exercises. Primarily you need to focus on how you want your dragons to look. Me? I built mine off of a foundation of cats. Not only because I live with more cats than you could shake a stick at (assuming you wanted to shake a stick at a bunch of cats....) but because my favorite illustrator did that.... and his dragons make me giddy. If he can do it.... I don't see why I can't .

After a 3 second trip to yahoo search I bring you this to better illustrate my point, refer to this at times if you need while reading this art journal: [link]

Starting out on my page, I will focus on the basic shapes to layout the mass. I give my dragons a big chest, suck in the stomach a bit, and then beef up the legs. Why do I do this? Muscle mass.

A creature must have a muscle mass layout that makes you think “yes that's possible”. With the chest being bigger, I can give it stronger shoulders, and generally give it a large muscle build leading into the wings – wings don't just sprout – they must have something to control them. Dragons are big, they aren't really built like birds.... birds aren't really all that scary (the idea of basing a dragon off of a finch for example doesn't really strike terror into knights I imagine), so since they're big and scary, this build will give them a stronger presence on the page, allowing you to make a bit more sense to the wing base. Now, I give them less of a pronounced stomach so that I have room for the legs. Plus it offsets from the chest, still allowing them to look a little graceful, instead of clunky and Buick like (for the youngins – a Buick is a car... I know you're not stupid, but if I don't say it, somebody'll ask). So this allows you to streamline it a little bit and opens up various poses since it has little girth getting in the way of the torso pivot point.

...one sec, I gotta go get some lemonade. Wait for me.

Thanks for waiting

So where were we, pivot point..... We all know that a pivot point is at the base of the ribcage right? Well, you should probably acknowledge that this is the spine. We know it, right? Well we don't always think of it when drawing. Remember, movement is based on the bones allowing it to happen. You should always ask yourself “what will the bones allow?” And then when you build the muscles, ask “how will the muscles control how these bones are moving?”. It's all so intertwined, you gotta put some real thought into this stuff.

So from here I hit up the legs a bit. The upper arms I build off of the vast chest/back muscles, so the shoulders are big, flow into strong bicep/triceps and then the forearm for me is very much like a humans. The difference is mostly the paw or hand. I don't make mine like a human and often enough this makes a huge difference for how people view your dragon. By really making it look like a paw, you create a feral look that helps the visual process a lot. It's a notable point on a creature after all. Plus you can do some wicked claws this way to make up for the lack of real fingers. The back legs are different, I stick to the cat physiology, fairly often. Why? I have no reason, I just like this layout. It works for me. Either way, I'm basing this off of something real, and not out of my own head so much – which is the first step to realism. It's not so important that you're reflecting a lizard like structure, if it's a fantasy creature you can base it off of anything really – just make sure that you truly are basing it on something so that people can relate.

People are funny that way. Truly in fantasy there aren't many rules right? Well visually if it doesn't relate in any way to something that a viewer knows, it won't click. So by doing this relation to a cat, which many people have at home or at least have seen a few times – they won't question this decision of yours as readily.

So the wings? I have nothing important to say there. I'd reference a bat or something. I hate to admit it but I never really give much thought to wings. It's a weakness I think, and I'm aiming to fix it. I recommend referencing anything with wings really. We had the Eragon movie which seemed to add more of a bird like feeling to the wings, we have rpg supplements which do a lot of bat like wings.... it's up to you, just make sure it all flows. Usually though I connect the skin of the wing itself to further down the torso, near the hip, this will give it more room for catching air, and doesn't put so much strain on the base of the wing bone. For me, this adds a dose of realism.

Needless to say, I don't really make the skulls of my dragons fit cats. It doesn't really seem fearsome to me. As it is, I can't say I base the skull on much of anything other than how other artists have done them. This is a stylistic choice, but there are points of interest that I always touch on. I strengthen the lower jaw, making sure they have enough muscle pack to make them look dangerous. So many younger artists don't pay attention to this, and make the lower jaw look flimsy. It's not very intimidating. Anyway, this a good spot to imitate those who inspire you, but you have plenty of room for adding your own look. You can arrange the bone structure so many ways. Just experiment around with it.

So, this brings us to the details. For me, the realism is in the muscle pack. I'll add bone spurs and spiky horns and what not wherever I think the bone may be close to the surface. Such as the brow, the edge of the forearm, this is easy. Look at yourself for guidance, we know that the skin is thinner in areas on our bodies. The head for example, ever bash your forehead? Well I do so often (I think it's a family curse), and the head can bleed easily. Not much muscle in the way there. Your collar bone? Not much in the way there. And your jaw line as well. This happens all around your body, and it'll happen on a creature too, no matter the type.

As far as scales? I take the cheap route, I treat them like I would rocks. Thick, hard, and fun to detail. Some people go with scales or something. That's fine. Just remember, you've gotta be a lot more meticulous and detail oriented with them.... I'm far too lazy for that, nevermind the fact that it just feels too clean for me.

So that's how I approach the subject of a dragon. This applies to any creature really. I just chose dragons because a) I do love drawing dragons and b) they're pretty darn iconic in the creature department. We all know what a dragon is. But I'd use the same techniques if I were to draw a Griffin – just with different foundation animals. And so on and so forth. Just remember, realism isn't always in what we think it's going to be, especially in fantasy. Just because a Dragon is generally reptilian doesn't mean we have to focus on making it reflect just reptiles. Do what it takes to match your vision. Take it from there.

Experimentation is where it really gets fun . Don't be afraid to not do it right, just keep trying. Gotta make a lot of crap before you get something awesome. It's just the way it's always been. Just keep hitting it.

With that I wanna touch on another point here, unrelated to creatures. I did a topic on exposure some time back. To all of you illustrative people, animators, or whatever – cgtalk/cgsociety has brought us another challenge to take part in should we wish to do so: [link]

Now, why would I join something or recommend joining something that we have almost no chance in winning? Because it's not about the winning. Sure there are some damn fine rewards for those who place – but the real win is getting to work with some of the industry best, get critiques on your processes, talk with people who can offer you great advice, and generally just have a fun time. It would be my hope to see a few familiar faces there during this over the next few months, willing to put themselves out there and try something exciting for once. These things do offer exposure, they teach you new things, and they aren't very stressful at all.

I have no idea what next weeks art journal will entail, I guess we'll all have to wait and see.

-Chris