How to Draw a Fire Dragon
In this tutorial I want to expand on my basic dragon drawing tutorial and show you how to draw a fire dragon covered in flames and breathing out a fireball.
How to Draw a Fire Dragon: Introduction
So, before you is a simple instruction, which shows in detail how to draw a fire dragon. The dragon is a mythical creature in the form of a huge lizard that can breathe fire. In this drawing, the dragon looks very menacing and inspires fear.
I have previously shown you how to draw a dragon using basic shapes and forms. This lesson will be largely based on that main lesson, as well as the lesson on drawing a lizard and other similar animals from the real world.
Be careful at every step of drawing and try to depict the head of the dragon correctly. You can use freehand lines to draw the flame, and therefore the shape of the flame may be slightly different from my example.
So, prepare the necessary materials, and you can start the lesson. Remember all the drawing steps so that in the future you can easily draw such a dragon or flames if necessary.
Fire Dragon Drawing Tutorial
Materials
- Pencil
- Paper
- Eraser
- Coloring supplies
Time needed: 40 minutes
How to Draw a Fire Dragon
- Outline the dragon’s head and body.
Draw two basic oval-like shapes for the fire dragon’s head and body. One the head, draw the open mouth. You can compare this first step to building blocks. Don’t worry about perfection, ovals can be adjusted later. Don’t press too hard on your pencils, but keep it light so you can erase guides easily.
- Add an eye and illustrate the fire breath.
Now, draw the dragon eye near the center of the head, add a small curved line for the brow above it, and sketch the dragon’s nose near the tip of the snout. From the open mouth, illustrate a flame extending outward. It doesn’t have to be symmetrical, fire always looks more convincing when it’s irregular and jagged.
- Illustrate the neck and burning mane.
Add a fiery mane along the top of the dragon’s Imagine how fire behaves – never even, always shifting. This idea helps when creating the mane. You can vary the length of the flame-like spikes. Extend two lines downward to connect the head to the body, drawing the fire dragon’s neck.
- Sketch the wing on the back.
Begin drawing the fire dragon’s wing with the curved top edge, then extend lines downward to form the inner “bones” of the wing. Connect these with curved, bat-like lines that represent the wing membrane. You can visit my bat wings drawing tutorial to learn more about it.
- Draw the fire dragon tail.
Extend two smooth curved lines from the back of the fire dragon’s body to illustrate the tail. Then, finish the tail with a small flame shape at the tip. Just like the mane and mouth fire, the flame at the tail should look irregular. In my fire drawing tutorial, I show how to illustrate it in detail.
- Illustrate the forelimbs.
Now give the fire dragon its front limbs. Draw short arms extending from the upper body, each ending with three little claws. You can make them sharp or curved as in my example. Keep the arms small compared to the body, since this dragon is meant to look more cartoon-like than overly fierce.
- Sketch the hind limbs.
Now, draw the fire dragon’s back legs near the bottom of the oval body. Create rounded thighs first, then extend them to form feet with claws. These claws also can be sharp of curved. The rear legs should look sturdier than the front arms since they support the dragon’s weight.
- Erase the guide lines and add final details.
Erase the construction lines from your fire dragon drawing. After treat, draw small fire shapes on the upper edge of the tail. You can also add extra little details at this point, like texture lines inside the flame or subtle marks along the belly.
- Paint the dragon body and flames.
Use shades of orange and yellow for the flames on the mane, mouth, and tail. Make the center of the fire parts lighter than the edges. The body can be filled with warm tones like orange or red, while the belly works well in a lighter cream color. The wings can either match the body or contrast with slightly darker tones.
How to Draw a Fire Dragon Head
Now let’s get into the details and learn how to draw a fire dragon head. This additional tutorial allows you to practice creating small details and create more convincing and believable creatures.
First, sketch a circle and a curved line for the neck. Add the elongated shape of the snout and sketch the lower jaw. Draw the fire dragon’s eye and brow ridge. Place two long horns on the top of the head and outline the pattern along the neck. Add pointed teeth inside the mouth and sketch the fire coming out.
Refine the crest along the back of the head and extend the flames with smaller tongues of fire around the main shape. Finish the fire dragon head drawing with clean lines and color the creature green, with a red crest and bright orange flame. Or you can use the color palette from the main tutorial, painting your fire dragon in a combination of red, orange and yellow.
Conclusion
Dragons are among the most exciting creatures to practice for kids because these creatures combine both animal structure and fantasy details. Once you’ve gone through this drawing, a good next step is to try out other dragon variations, such as a more classic dragon tutorial or even a baby dragon if you’d like something lighter in style.
I’d also suggest looking at tutorials like how to draw a unicorn or a griffin. And of course, if you’d like to push your fantasy drawings even further, check out my other fantasy creature drawing tutorials for more versions you can add to your collection.
