How To Draw Dragon Wings

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  • Sketching/Drawing
  • Level: Intermediate
  • Subject: Dragon Wings

Dragon Workshop: Head | Body | Scales | Wings | Limbs And Talons | Horns And Other Addons | More…

I briefly touched upon drawing wings earlier when explaining how to design dragon body. Let us take a closer look at how we can draw the wings in just about any position.

Anatomic Construction Lines

Here is a construction of an open wing from the inner side.

Open Dragon Wings - Construction Lines

The joints are denoted by letters and the major bones indicated by numbers. ‘A’ denotes the shoulder joint, ‘B’ denotes the elbow joint, and ‘C’ denotes the wrist joint. This is drawn comparing the open wing to a stretched human arm.

Closed Dragon Wings - Construction Lines

Above is the construction of a closed or curled up wing. Note that line marked with ‘1′ is from shoulder to elbow, ‘2′ is the fore arm, and ‘3′ is the index finger.

Wrapping The Skin

Open Dragon Wings - Sketching

All that is left to do is wrapping skin around these skeletal construction lines.

Closed Dragon Wings - Sketching

Sketch the skin of the wings, stretching between the fingers, from index to middle, to ring, to little finger. After that, just pull the webbing like skin to the pit under the ‘arm’.

Various Wing Positions

Open Dragon Wing - Lineart

Study your own arm and examine how it bends or ask your friend to pose for you, so that you can do quick construction line sketches.

Closed Dragon Wing - Lineart

After that, practice wrap the skin around it. Let is sag a bit between the ‘fingers’. Once you clean up, you should have a lineart that looks appropriate on a dragon body. If you are doing any closeup artwork of a dragon, consider drawing scales on them – but it is usually on the outer or the back side of the wing.

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  1. Roberta Seldon’s avatar

    Great tutorial! Thanks!

    Reply

  2. Vyoma’s avatar

    You are welcome, Roberta :)

    Reply

  3. Kittygurl521’s avatar

    Nice tutorial! This was just what I was looking for.

    Reply

  4. james’s avatar

    thanks now i know jow to draw the wings on my dragons i can draw really good dragons but had a problems on drawing the wings

    Reply

  5. Vyoma’s avatar

    Glad that you found this helpful, james.

    Would love to see your dragon drawings. :)

    Reply

  6. clarissa’s avatar

    Thanks I have a book report on ERAGON and i have to draw Saphira.I was looking on every wep how to draw dragon wings and thanks to you my book report wont be as bad as my others. :p :)

    Reply

  7. Vyoma’s avatar

    That is great, Clarissa. :)

    By the way, is this book report for any academic purpose? Do post a link if you have published it anywhere online.

    Reply

  8. Clarissa’s avatar

    Wow! This is what i needed for my project.

    Thank You Very Much!

    Reply

  9. Vyoma’s avatar

    Possible double posting?

    ;)

    Reply

  10. greyelk’s avatar

    can you show me how to draw A dragon

    Reply

  11. Vyoma’s avatar

    Hey greyelk – I have put together this page – Dragon Workshop – that has all the posts published at KalaaLog.com on Dragons.

    There is a series of drawing tutorials that should help you out.

    Reply

  12. Andrew’s avatar

    i can now draw dragons again.I could draw super good dragons in the 2nd grade but i lost my talent.So good job on your site it really helps.

    Reply

  13. Trevor Seines’s avatar

    Cool!!!!

    Reply

  14. Vyoma’s avatar

    I am glad, Andrew. :) Do post a link to your artwork if you have uploaded them anywhere.

    Thanks! Trevor.

    Reply

  15. unknown’s avatar

    thnx 8)

    Reply

  16. Ana’s avatar

    OMG thank you so much for simplifying it. A friend wanted me to draw dragon wings for him and this has been extremely helpful.

    Reply

  17. Vyoma’s avatar

    You are welcome, Ana. :)

    Reply

  18. Boogers’s avatar

    Pritty cool

    Reply

  19. JUSTIN’s avatar

    Could you please tell me 12 types of lines? Like vertical, straight, curved, etc… I really need this for my project.

    Reply

  20. Vyoma’s avatar

    I did not realize there were ‘12 types of lines’ – sorry, cannot help you on that one.

    Reply

  21. ellie’s avatar

    cool…now i can draw wings on my dragons much better….thanx

    Reply

  22. Vyoma’s avatar

    You are welcome, ellie!

    Reply

  23. buddy’s avatar

    Your guides really help me. I want to get your advice on my drawings but I don’t know how to send you one. Just email me when you get the chance. Thanks!!!

    Reply

  24. Vyoma’s avatar

    Glad that it helped you buddy.

    As far as feed back on your artwork is concerned, you could use my contact form, or for a broader scope, register at CGPainting.com and post your works. :)

    Reply

  25. muhammad’s avatar

    oh thanxs i can draw sik, i had a poster to do on a mythalogical beasts and the only thing i needed left was the dragon wings so thank u very much on this wonderful tutorial

    Reply

  26. timbo’s avatar

    Thanks the it really helped amd i got a plus on my english assiment THX A LOT

    Reply

  27. Samara’s avatar

    Thank you!! I have been wanting to draw folded Dragon wings for a while now. I know how to now! If you want, you can look at my work. (Take notice that all wings are unfolded. =D) Here is the link: http://s527.photobucket.com/albums/cc354/mara204ever/Dragons/

    Reply

  28. Vyoma’s avatar

    I guess we can soon see some more dragon artwork with folded wings from you, Samara.

    I would like to suggest deviantART to you. It is a great site to upload your artwork and build a profile. Check out my deviantART profile. We can keep track of what others upload and I guess you would like building your art profile there. :)

    Reply

  29. Neopolitan’s avatar

    I would just like to say, you are the best!!! I was trying to draw a dragon for this little kid who, obviously, loves dragons, and I gotta hand it to ya, your stuff is easy to master, but still very effective, thanks a bunch!

    Reply

  30. Vyoma’s avatar

    Thanks, Neopolitan!

    Keep things simple in the beginning and build on it as you practice – it is quite effective. ;)

    Reply

  31. AEdwards’s avatar

    Not only is this really helpful for drawing but it I great for basic structure in sculpting! Thanks!!

    Reply

  32. Vyoma’s avatar

    I did not think of applying this to sculpting medium, but I guess – basic principles may be applied across different mediums. :)

    Reply

  33. James H. (Lee)’s avatar

    thank you for making these i need to be able to clean up the way i draw a bit.

    i wish i could show you some of the art i have done on paint, but i am not sure i can to be honest

    Reply

  34. esme’s avatar

    wow. thx a lot! i could always draw dragons but the wings never looked right. now thx to u i can draw good ones!

    Reply

  35. jarod’s avatar

    okay its super i am a artist but i couldnot draw dragon wings until i found this website
    !

    Reply

  36. Chris’s avatar

    Thanks for this little tut. I love dragons and love to know how to draw dragon wings.

    Reply

  37. sorena’s avatar

    I LOVE THE TUTORIAL!!!
    i frequently draw dragons, and get stuck on the wings. these are great!
    you really should write an art book.
    thanks to you, i have concered the wings!

    Reply

  38. Vyoma’s avatar

    You are welcome, sorena.

    Reply

  39. Darnis’s avatar

    Thanks, Vyoma, i love these tutorials. You should start working on an art book soon :)

    Reply

  40. helen’s avatar

    this is rely good. i notcied that u used paintbrushes. thats nice XD.. but i prefer pencil. painting makes everything messy for me, so i use the pencil. this web. was very helpful. Thanks! i know how to draw wings really good now. thank you soooo soooo soooo sooo sooo soooo soooo sooo sooo mcuh!

    Reply

  41. Sarah’s avatar

    I am making a dragon puppet out of polyfoam rubber and the folded arm was just what I needed and could not find. Thank you so much for sharing – the simplicity was easily transferred into 3-D.

    Reply

  42. Allen Smith’s avatar

    These are really great, and now I understand better how to draw dragons wings, but I was wondering if you had any pointers about how to draw dragons wings coming up from the back instead of out from the side.

    Reply

  43. killers fan’s avatar

    dude i love ur work but i need help with mecha dragon wings a feet please help me

    Reply

  44. Heather Wilkinson’s avatar

    I am a dragon fan and really like your pictures. I have a problem though. You see i’m making a game, a online rpg. I am trying to draw the final boss but am having trouble with its dragonlike wings. You see I want to have four folded wings, but have been having trouble drawing them. I tried a similance of yours but the fold seems to be a frontal view and I need a back/above view. Can or will you help? Or do you have any advice?

    Reply

  45. Xela-The-God-Draws’s avatar

    This really helped me, I have to draw 2 dragons that have an inside and outside part of their wings so I really needed this Thank you so much.

    Reply

  46. Victoria’s avatar

    Thank you SOOO much for the tutorial! I have an art project due tomorrow, and my project is on drawing dragons, and I always got stuck on drawing nice wings, one of them looked like a paw jutting out of the dragon. XD
    Now the wings look really nice. Thanks!!!

    Reply

  47. Vierrania’s avatar

    This is simple….but, COOL N’ GRAET!!!!! ;D

    Reply

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