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StormRyda — Anatomy of a dragon

Published: 2012-08-22 03:07:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 1059; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 12
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Description So a lot of people LOVE to draw dragons.

But to make your dragon not only look good, but be anatomically functional, you gotta understand a few things.

Constructed from a dog skeleton (inset), plus some various bits of bat and bird and deer skull.

The foreleg of a dragon needs to be further back than on any other quadruped. This is to allow room for the wings. YES they go IN FRONT of the leg, not on top or behind. A Dragon also needs a keel and wishbone. These are important anatomical features for flight because the keel holds the huge breast flight muscles, which need to run up to the shoulder joint of the wing. It is this series of huge muscles that push the foreleg back. The wishbone is like a spring, storing energy and pushing it back to add power to the strokes.
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Comments: 13

CryoftheBeast [2013-06-02 04:30:07 +0000 UTC]

Actually some things are a bit off here if you don't mind my saying. Wings can go in front, or behind the legs but those bones are little to close together and your wing dose not have right kind of shoulder blade actually, what you have there,isn't one at all. You have to keep in mind that the two limbs shoulder blades would collide and interfere with each others movement.

And if you wanna get real technical the chest would need to be much bigger too. Lots of upper body strength is needed to fly. Also all winged creature have wingspans twice as long as their bodies. So one wing would have to be the same length form nose to tail.

This person has the most anatomically correct dragons on DA, as far as i know at least.
Here-->[link] is one of her dragon anatomy charts. I think that may clear up a few things for you. (but this is still a neat pic bty)

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StormRyda In reply to CryoftheBeast [2013-06-30 09:01:47 +0000 UTC]

*shrugs*
no one is perfect. I'll tweak it when i get the chance. mostly the forelegs need moving up toward the head is all.

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CryoftheBeast In reply to StormRyda [2013-06-30 23:16:44 +0000 UTC]

Oh yeah, of course. I just thought I'd share the knowledge. Anatomy is a fun challenge, but there are other ways of making your art look good too.

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SEWong [2012-08-24 08:58:12 +0000 UTC]

Cool! You've done a great job with those bones. A good reference.

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StormRyda In reply to SEWong [2012-08-25 04:42:34 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

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tricksterwolf13 [2012-08-22 05:50:35 +0000 UTC]

This is an excellent anatomy reference! owo

My dragons are all so wimpy *facepalms* because they're anatomically incorrect most of the time XD
So I find this very very useful.

Nice job, Storm!

and now I will stop putting wings in slightly off locations :0

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StormRyda In reply to tricksterwolf13 [2012-08-22 07:35:25 +0000 UTC]

glad it is of some help.

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Nikolai-Kalahan [2012-08-22 03:37:20 +0000 UTC]

Saweet job! That looks awesome!

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DinoGirl500 [2012-08-22 03:08:46 +0000 UTC]

looks quite real :3 good job.

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StormRyda In reply to DinoGirl500 [2012-08-22 03:11:26 +0000 UTC]

thank you.
took ages to source all the bones as bones and not drawings to make it look that way.

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DinoGirl500 In reply to StormRyda [2012-08-22 03:16:02 +0000 UTC]

i under, i tried to do this once.
i rage-quited

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StormRyda In reply to DinoGirl500 [2012-08-22 03:19:56 +0000 UTC]

XD - well now you have a reference, even if you didn't do it yourself

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DinoGirl500 In reply to StormRyda [2012-08-22 03:25:51 +0000 UTC]

yay XD

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