How to Draw Chinese Dragon Art

Here is an example of a Chinese dragon.

Chinese dragons, a longer, more narrow bodied dragon than western dragons, resemble an eel in their dimensions and also have a unique lion-like mane. Because of its particularly unique look, it is easy to tell when a dragon is drawn in the Chinese style. Traditionally, dragons are an important part of Chinese mythology.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pencil

Instructions

1. Draw a wavering line on your paper to represent the dragon's body and finish by drawing a square where the head should be. This line shows where the body of dragon is and how it is curving.

2. Draw in a tail at the end of the line (opposite your square). You can do this by drawing curving pointed lines (think how you would draw flames).

3. Fill in the head by drawing in eyes, a square snout and large teeth. If you are not that good at these details, take advantage of the dragons mane and use it to hide and cover mistakes. For example, if one of the eyes "looks wrong," but you can't find out how or why, cover some or all of it with a bit of mane. This will give it a rough, natural look, and you can focus on drawing perfect eyes later on when you have more experience.

4. Create dimension by "thickening" up the body of the dragon. Draw two lines from the head of the dragon to the tail and erase your original guiding line. Using the size of the head and tail as a guide, you should be able to tell by observing whether the body is too thick or too thin for the head. Keep in mind that the body will taper toward the tail, thicken in the middle (think of a snake, the middle is sleek but with the potential for a hugely distended form when it has eaten) and thin slightly toward the head. Chinese dragons tend to be more snake or eel-like than Western dragons, so you would not draw all the bones and muscles you would need for a Western dragon. To create a round or three-dimensional effect, you should add shading to the dragon (lighter in the middle of the body, getting darker as it curves away from you) and possibly some shadows behind the dragon.

5. Draw feet. Chinese dragons have four feet, but depending on the angle of your dragon's body, you will not see all of them. Space these feet at about one-third and two-thirds of the way along the dragon's body. Remember perspective and the laws of anatomy. Creatures with bones and muscles can only bend so far in so many directions, so it would be unrealistic for you to draw the dragon from one angle (perspective) but give it an anatomy based on a different perspective. This results in a drawing that looks like the subject is "broken" (weird bones, broken necks, limbs in the wrong places and so on) -- this can be easily avoided by referring to a photo. For imaginary creatures like a dragon, you can use an image of something similar, like a lizard, which would show you a realistic way to place limbs and to help you keep your visual perspective so you don't end up showing limbs that should be hidden behind the lizard's body.