How to Draw Dragon Wings

Hey Everyone!

I draw dragon wings constantly while I'm doodling or making up characters so here is a lesson on how to draw a basic wing.

1. Basic Outline

   Here I have drawn just the outline of the wing. I put the small horn on the top of the wing where the joint is. Sometimes I put that there and sometimes I leave it out. This wing has not been completely stretched out. That is why it overlaps a little at the end. This will help make the wing not look flat.

2. The Bones in the Wing

   Now I have added the bones. Each bone starts at the joint where I put the horn and goes down to a point on the edge of the wing. I made the bones look a little bent in the middle. This is where a small joint would be that makes the wings more flexible and gives them the feeling like they could really push through air.

   The section of the wing where the bone would meet the body of the dragon, needs to be thicker than the other bones. Make it look like it has more muscle behind it. The one I have drawn is not much bigger, but for a larger, more powerful dragon you might want to make that thicker.

3. The Shading

   Now for the shading. This is what adds depth. Since this dragon wing is not fully stretched, the membrane (or skin, not sure what to call it) between the bones would be looser. The light in this picture is coming from the right. Since the membrane between the bones would be looser, part of it would be missing the light. The part of the wing the light would be hitting would be what is the closest to the bone on the left, even though the light is coming from the right. 

   The part of the wing that seems to be overlapping I left lighter so it would not blend in too much with the rest of the wing.
   Now the wing is complete!

Bible Verse:

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Drawing Manga Style

Hi!

   I have been trying some manga style drawings. (just to clarify :manga- Japanese comic books; anime-Japanese movies and tv shows) I found a picture of Hiro from the original Big Hero 6 comic books and I used it to learn how to shade and add detail to cartoon looking drawings without making them too realistic.

   I decided to take this picture of Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians and turn him into a manga character! 

   I drew it with pencil first. I didn't change much about the overall head shape and contour lines in the clothes. What I did do differently was the hair and face. The eyes needed to be a lot different.

   There are tons of ways of drawing manga eyes, but I usually use a more square eye for male characters. I left some blank spaces in my eyes.

   In realistic pictures the nose doesn't usually have a contour line, it's more of a shadow. You draw it using light lines and shading. In manga drawings however, the faces don't have much detail. In this picture the darkest shadow is at the bottom of the nose, so that is the only line I drew in the picture.

   Now for the mouth. All I needed to draw for the mouth was a line and a smaller line to indicate the bottom lip.

   Manga hair is one of the funnest parts of the drawing. It's thick, often with large bangs. Of course, you don't want as many lines in a manga drawing, so I drew the most prominent lines in the original picture.

   Once I had finished the sketch, I went back over my pencil lines with a pen.Once I had traced my lines, it was time to color it! In manga drawings, there is little to no gradation in the shading. I used only three different levels of shading, shadow, highlight and medium tones. In the Hiro picture they also had some very dark black areas of shading, but I avoided those not wanting to mess it up. When I shaded the face, I left an area on the nose white for highlight.

   Here is the finished drawing!

Bible Verse:

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;

Romans 12:6 (ESV)

Warm Weather (finally!)

Hey!

It's been really warm here in Tennessee lately! These are my favorite kind of temperatures. I love it when it's in the 70's like this. I sat on our back porch the other day and finished my drawing of a horse! I drew it for a girl in my youth group who just had to have a very delicate surgery. I hope it makes her feel happy:) I'm going to write Exodus 14:14 on the back of it. That is verse she has claimed as she goes through this journey of recovery. Here is the drawing and the verse is underneath!

Exodus 14:14

The Lord shall fight for you, ye shall hold your peace.