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SeaSaltShrimp — Tutorial: Dragon Designing Tips - part 1/3
#dragon #tutorial
Published: 2016-08-26 16:18:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 78974; Favourites: 2537; Downloads: 941
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Description
HERE IT IIIIIIS, the tutorial I had been working on since January.... Although it's been on a long hiatus until last month. I can't believe it is now done
Special thanks to my beta readers who offered seriously helpful and constructive reviews on this. If not for you guys I doubt I would have regained the motivation to finish this c':Eventhough it was lots of fun, this is as far as I'll go with dragon tutorials. One reason why I'm terrible at tutorials apart from confidence issues, is there is usually a ton I want to talk about and it becomes a huge mess hahah. I also have trouble explaining and especially in English. Hope all the text doesn't scare you off xD Let me know if you spot any grammar error.
In any case this allowed me to fully nerd out and express my unhealthy love for design features and unique character traits
I could go on and on for hours. Starting off with the faces! Also, sorry if the part about "drawing in your own style" feels a bit long, but I wanted to say this since I have been messaged by people several times, that they have been told to change their style and draw dragons like I do because someone told them "it's how you draw dragons, don't use your current style", and I find this really silly. It has happened enough times that I felt it needed to be mentioned. People have no right to dictate how you should draw something and state which style is "right". It's also not a good idea to say this if the artist doesn't want their style being copied, but that's another topic.
Anyways, hope you'll enjoy! If you ever use this tutorial to design some charas, I'd totally love to see what you do with it c: And like I said part 2 will be here in a few days ~
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Part 2: Part 3:
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Comments: 230
Thank you for taking your time to explain these points to people, especially same head/body/etc syndrome. It's a bit disappointing when people draw clones and on your suggestions to try other variations they back off with "it's mah style fuk yo".
I'm not sure what else you're going to cover in the remaining 2 parts, but I have a suggestion:
- clothing, jewelry and other accessouries (samples below):
-- piercing horns with rings
-- pulling a shirt with no holes with wings
-- strapping a belt which is supported by magic or glue as it doesn't pierce the membrane (or maybe it's just a tattoo of the belt???)
-- add armour there, because I tend to see people glue metal plates on dragons
-- honestly, any dressing up which forgets the existence of limbs and how these work, this should be a great section as I don't recall anyone covering it up yet
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Good suggestion! I don't talk about accessories or any of this in the remaining part but that would be an interesting topic to cover... Uh, I'll try and think of a way to include it in part 3 or maybe some bonus part, if I have the motivation to add more
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It would be cool to have at least a bit on this topic, either included or as a separate bonus, just to show people what to do and what don't. First legit dress-up tutorial of sorts.
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Very useful
Edit : Oh làlà j'avais pas remarqué que tu étais française
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C'est franchement génial et très complet, hâte de voir la suite 
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OOOO: I haven't gotten to the bottom yet but its SO good so far!!
I will spend the next ten years studying this thank you
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Aaaah I'm glad this is helpful!
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Wow. Seriously, Shrimp, you are so amazingly talented at this stuff! This makes me want to go back and draw/redesign my dragons again. This tutorial is spectacular!
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This is very helpful and very detailed! marvelous work!
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gawd this is amazing. I love how this is also a study on character design in general and not just dragons.
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Thankyou kindly for making this detailed tutorial. I love how in-depth it goes with the way you can create your own character,
and just make it as unique as you want it to be :3
I'm still working on the design of my character, and it's taken me months xD
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It's a pleasure :'D Glad it can be useful. Heh, I'm still changing things on designs that I made YEARS ago xD
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My own art style is a little, well, how could I put this (thinks really hard for a moment), iffy in some way xD
Still not sure what path to go with it xD But have noticed change in the last 2 years. I remember even making early designs of
my character as-well. Her over-all look, and personality has had a huge over-haul in the last 1 year alone 0-o
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I just love those awesome headshots designs at the very bottom! xD
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Aaaah thank you :'D I had fun with those haha
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You're welcome!
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Love it! Now if only more people would take your advice...
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Can you do one for velociraptors and other dinos
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This is actually really helpful! Some of the points you made made me rethink how I draw dragons and I intend to experiment more with my own characters and designs.
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Wow. This is really great. I mean to leave a comment earlier but I didn't :c. But as many people said, this is very informitive and I'ma take a glance back at it when I draw later to get down on friday.
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Dear Fourth, this is the first time in 7 years I've been that I've been following your art, that I have commented! I'd just like to say thank you for making this because I feel it has helped a lot of people including myself see that the dragons and creatures you draw are different shapes and sizes and like you said not limited to one style. Personally I found that basing your style on someone else's either ends up being the same or different. I've watched others art styles but not really done much drawing until within the last year. I have a way to go but I know with enough practice and time could be another 5 years or 10 I might get where I want to be artistically. Your style and passion is an inspiration even if you don't think it is to me and a lot of others! 
Looking at this tutorial helped me understand a bit bit more about where should the eyes be, where are the legs, the bridge of the nose. It's time I took a step back and when drawing different poses and angles, instead of rushing it think about where things are placed. I shouldn't compare myself, nor feel down but we all have those days. But this really again has helped me think of all the physics that go into not just dragons but other creatures.
This is a quick sketch I made in my style, just taking one step at a time and thinking carefully: sta.sh/0h9g49ykzgi
Again THANK YOU for the enlightenment and teaching. I'm English I have a quarter French blood in me, so I say to what I can remember,merci mille fois! XD
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Thanks a lot for the comment, it means a ton c': And that's a good way of thinking when drawing, don't compare yourself to other people or feel down if you don't succeed at something, when all you need is to keep trying. Glad this tutorial could be helpful and also this is a lovely design! She looks really pretty :'D
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thanks this is really helpful even for some one just starting
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I love this so much, it's a great help. (: But I was wondering if you could do a tutorial on feet/paws? (I'm so bad at drawing those oops)
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Oh wait I just read the bio, nevermind. Whoops
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Now that is a great tutorial. So I have no idea what you were afraid of doing wrong on it. XD
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Guess I'm just way too anxious for my own good... x'D
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Well at least it didn't stop you from succeeding. Soooo you can say you "survived".
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Yep. Let that be a lesson to remember hahaha
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Thank you very much for posting this! I'very been thinking about redesigning Soracid for awhile now and his will help me a lot! :3
Thank you!
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This is so helpful! Especially since I'm giving one of my dragons a re-design xD
And yeah, I noticed many people use the same base for dragons and other characters. (Not saying it's a bad thing, to anyone who does that)
I almost did this, but I knew it would seriously lack the "character" I designed. I do however do the same base for adopts, and I should probably stop sooner or later.
Also I did not notice how the lines are sharper for the bad guys. O.O It's actually really cool because my bad dragon is so pointy x'D
The similar faces...
YES.
I noticed how similar Mark and Ev looked, and I honestly really disliked it (Ev is who I'm redesigning)
So I later designed Dromen , Lizzbeth , and this guy . I love them so much, and they have so much character to them and it's bootiful.
It makes them so much more fun to draw and it's just generally a better experience when you use different body types. <3
Although my pointy dragon's jaw is locked in and I didn't notice that until I saw this... xD
And I will defiantly be doing some random dragon headshots! It seems like a very fun and helpful thing, and some new characters may come out of it!
Before I forget, those headshots you did are beautiful!
All in all, this is a beautiful tutorial and I enjoyed reading every word <3
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Those last 3 designs are super original and I love them :'D I love how not a single part of their design has been left ignored and that makes them all unique
Do make some headshots if you want! :'D I'd totally like to see them. I may or may not have created a few new characters myself while working on this tutorial hehe...
I'm really happy to hear this <3
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I'm so glad you like them! <3
If you don't want the top left design I shall ask for it x'D
But all those dragons look so personalized and they have so much character and they'd all be so much fun to draw <3
Also! I forgot in my last comment, do you happen to have a Skype?
If you wanna keep it to yourself that's totally okay c:
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I really do thank you, this is really helpful when it comes to making an original character, thanks for the tips though :3
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yesss, even tho I know about most of this there's a lot of people misguided into limiting their style and designs so much
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Yes aaah, a lot of people tend to rely on "crazy stylish horns and crest shapes" to make the entire design unique, but there's so much more than that ;-; I hope this helps give more ideas.
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AHHH THIS IS WONDERFUL OHMYGOSH
I remember you announcing this and it's even better than I'd hoped for dkghs
The amount of detail in this is incredible; a lot of tutorials simply show how to copy another style, but this one is commendable in that it shows you how to capture character essences in an original way qvq I'll definitely be using this when I revamp some of my ocs omg
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I'm so glad to hear it omg <'3 Hope this can help for your designs!
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THANK YOU.
This is JUST what dA needs!! I know you've been working on this for quite a while, and it's going to be 100% worth it. Also, beautiful dragons on the bottom there <3
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I'm glad of how helpful people seem to find it so far aaaah, and thank you! I had quite a lot of fun designing those faces :'D
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This is a cool tutorial for dragon designers I may think about changing Icefire and working on dragon anatomy to get body shape, neck, scales, horns, wings and arms and feet right and hopefully design other dragons.
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