J. Neon Dragon Peffer - Dragonart Evolution: How to Draw Everything Dragon

DRAGONART
EVOLUTION How to Draw Everything Dragon
J NeonDragon Peffer DragonArt Evolution. Copyright 2010 by Jessica Peffer. Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. (800) 289-0963. (800) 289-0963.

First Edition. Other fine IMPACT Books are available from your local bookstore, art supply store or online supplier. Visit our website at www.fwmedia.com. 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1 DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY FRASER DIRECT
100 Armstrong Avenue
Georgetown, ON, Canada L7G 5S4
Tel: (905) 877-4411 DISTRIBUTED IN THE U.K. AND EUROPE BY DAVID & CHARLES
Brunel House, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 4PU, England
Tel: (+44) 1626 323200, Fax: (+44) 1626 323319
Email: postmaster@davidandcharles.co.uk DISTRIBUTED IN AUSTRALIA BY CAPRICORN LINK
P.O. Box 704, S.

Windsor NSW, 2756 Australia
Tel: (02) 4577-3555 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Peffer, Jessica,
DragonArt evolution : how to draw everything dragon / Jessica NeonDragon
Peffer. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4403-0252-7 (alk. paper)
eISBN 13: 978-1-4403-1047-8
1. Dragons in art Juvenile literature. 2.

Drawing Technique Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Title: How to draw everything dragon. III.

Title: Dragon art evolution.
NC825.D72P437 2010
743.87 dc22 2010017862 Edited by Sarah Laichas and Mona Michael
Designed by Wendy Dunning
Production coordinated by Mark Griffin Metric Conversion Chart

INTRODUCTION

If you've picked up this book, chances are good that you're a fan of fantasy, myth and dragons. I must commend you on your most excellent taste! Inside you will find step-by-step demonstrations, breakdowns on pieces of anatomy, color theory and illustrations of ways that one could visualize these creatures of myth and magic. I hope that you use these demonstrations as sources of inspiration and foundations for drawing and designing dragons, rather than the end-all book on the subject. By no means let what's sandwiched between these pages limit your imagination or the many, many ways that you can design your own unique dragons!

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

If you're familiar with my other books, you're well aware of how things work. But for the uninitiated, I offer this advice for working through the exercises. This book consists mainly of easy-to-follow step-by-step demonstrations.

Each new step of each demonstration is denoted in red or green. Following along with the demonstrations will help you draw several different, truly extraordinary creatures. With this book, we bring back Dolosus, your fierce dragon guide introduced in the first DragonArt. He shows up here and there to provide helpful tips and tricks to ease your passage. Don't be discouraged if your first efforts don't look exactly as you planned. Everything comes with practice.

The more you draw, the better you'll get. Through sheer repetition, your drawings will improve and your own personal style will emerge. If each drawing you make looks a little bit better than the previous one, you're getting somewhere. So sharpen your pencils, find your softest eraser, prepare your trusty inking pen, and let's go! >1<Begin with a simple line of motion.>2<Add a snout to the head bubble.Place the legs under your dragon. If his legs sway too much to one side or the other, it will look like he's about to fall over.

DRAGON BASIC SHAPES

First things first. Before you can dive into drawing beautiful beasts, you need to arm yourself with some drawing basics.

The easiest way to think about drawing anything is to think of everything as shapes. Anything you would ever want to draw tables, chairs, flowers or unicorns consists of simple shapes. Basics Lead to Beasties Practice drawing these simple shapes before moving on to more complicated forms. Drawing Any Creature Begins With Basic Shapes Every dragon or creature you'll learn about in the pages to follow will begin with simple shapes such as these.

Tools You Need

The wonderful thing about drawing is that you really don't need much your own imagination is the most important thing. To get what's in your head down on paper, though, you will need:

• Some pencils and a pencil sharpener
• A kneaded eraser
• Paper

That's all that's required to propel yourself into fantasy-creature creation readiness!

DRAGON SHADING AND 3-D EFFECTS

Dragons appear more realistic when you draw them to look three-dimensional.

It isn't as hard as it sounds. You just have to pay attention to darks and lights and how they affect your creature. Consider first where the light is coming from. This is called the light source. Where the light source hits your dragon or other object is the lightest spot, called the highlight. The rest of your creature will likely be in some stage of shadow.

As you develop your skills at shading the shadow areas, your creatures will begin to take on new life. Practice on Simple ShapesPolygons