✍️ Sketch Along #10: Drawing DRAGONS

VIP sketch-along #10 is happening today at 7pm UK time. Other details below. Remember, our sketch-alongs happen every Thursday!

✏️ Here are some sketches from last week’s sketch-along. We focused on creating sketches that used light and shadow in interesting ways!✏️

✏️What are we drawing?

This week we are drawing…

Dragons! There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. It’s officially Mermay and I thought it would be fun to sketch magical creatures of all sorts this month!

2. I’ve been reading books with dragons in them and have gotten the fantasy itch 🤷‍♀️

But I think it’s important to understand how to draw fantastical creatures for a kidlit portfolio. It can be difficult trying to draw something anatomically correct straight from your imagination and can be even harder if the thing you’re trying to draw isn’t real! Let’s put those fantasy drawing muscles to work 🐉

✏️Drawing references?

We’ll be referencing from…

Everywhere! Pinterest, books, concept art, ancient depictions. I might throw in some actual animal photography (like komodo dragons) in our references to understand the basic anatomy of the draco species.

Me slipping into the bath after a long day… GIF from Game of Thrones.

Make sure to bring along your drafting supplies. Pencils, colored pencils, and any other tools good for drawing details is going to be perfect!

I’ll add the references and reference sources to the Discord sketch-along channel so you can continue practicing before and after our meetup. If you haven’t joined the now bustling TIAC Discord group, please sign up using the link at the bottom of this email.

✏️When and what time?

We’ll all be chatting and sketching today: May 1st, 2025!

Our weekly sketch-alongs take place at 7pm UK time and 2pm EST. Click here to access a time zone converter to convert the time to your time zone.

Can’t make it? No worries! Our sketch-alongs are uploaded to The Illustrator’s Art Club VIP substack archive for you to view at your leisure👍

It’s an hour-long sketching party and part-casual-hangout/part-fun-drawing tutorial.

We’ll be chatting about:

• How to draw dragons with form and believable anatomy.

• Why dragons are always popular in children’s books (and adult books!).

• Different ways of making your fantastical creatures unique and fun.

• And whatever else we can fit in an hour!

  

  Illustration I made for a library reading map (2020). Could you think of a better sleeping spot??

✏️ And where are we drawing??

On Zoom! Here’s the link: