Do you hate spiders but love dragons? Obviously, you’re doing it wrong. By combining something you like with something you hate, you will like the thing you hate. In this case, let’s make a Spider Dragon! This piece features ink, pencil, and watercolor.
What you will need
- Strong paper that can handle watercolor
- Ink pen, preferably a fine tipped marker pen and a brush pen
- Small watercolor kit
Drawing the Normal Base
Start with the head of your dragon. This usually consists of a circle, and a rectangular shape that is further defined with a curve under the jaw and smoothing out the lines into a clean muzzle.
Sketching the Wings
Start by thinking of how bat wings look. Bat wings have three bone pieces, each segmented into three mini bones and connected at the halfway joint, which further goes down and connects to the body.
How to Draw Spider Eyes that don’t look too Cheesy
The eyes of the Spider Dragon cannot look too cheesy. Avoid the cheese by making almost blobby oval shapes and sketching a small area of shadow around them.
Making the Wings of the Spider Dragon Creepy
Alright, so think about a big, gnarly spider. What makes the spider so scary? Enhance your wings by making the joints more knobbly, and cover the individual pieces in little hairs.
The Curve of the Spine
A dragon such as this has a posture similar to a horse. Look at pictures of horses and donkeys to figure out how to position the rest of the body.
Drawing the Feet of the Spider Dragon
I’ve found that drawing dragon feet are a lot easier if you draw where each segment of the toe goes. Draw three lines per toe and use lizard feet as a reference if need be. Try not to use other drawings of dragons as reference as everyone draws dragon feet a little differently.
Drawing the Spider Dragon Potato
Dragon Feet are hard to draw. Drawing potatoes is not. Draw a potato in front of one of the feet, just a lumpy little oval shape with some bumps in it.
Creating the Underbelly
Think of the surface area of the dragon the belly covers. Draw two guidelines showing where the belly scales go, and one line down the middle to show where the middle of the belly is. Draw teardrop shapes interlocking to the middle of the belly and use your ink pen to add fur coming out of the middle of the belly and frizzing out about halfway to the outer edge of the scales. Erase your guidelines when you are finished.
Adding Horns and Inking the Drawing
Dragons typically need horns. This drawing already has so much going on, just draw little horns on his head to not distract too much from his body. Start darkening the lines you like that you’d like to become the final piece.
Where to ink and Where to Watercolor
Ink is great for details. It’s good for fur and fuzz and drawing out in general. However, it’s also good to have a bit of shading over your drawing. Using very watered-down black, fill in and shade out the dragon. Places that need shade are the bottoms of the feet, bottoms of the wings, near the belly scales and just under the jaw line.
Adding Pops of Color to the Spider Dragon
The potato should be brown, and the eyes and tongue should be a nice bright shade of red. This will make your piece more defined and give the eyes a glimmer that attracts attention. Make sure to leave a little bit of white in the iris. Add a small black outline around the eyes to connect them in a sort of band along the side of the face.
Adding Fur to the Spider Dragon
Add fur to the body by drawing little short lines all over the back, neck and side of the dragon. This will make him look all fuzzy and gross. Perfect.
Finish
And your little Spider Dragon is finished. Feel free to add your signature and continue making him look scarier. Happy Crafting!