Dracopedia: A Guide to Drawing the Dragons of the World

The Dracopedia is beautifully detailed in both its art and its design, made to look like a tome with page design that adds to the feeling of the book without being distracting. It is well laid out and a great read.Agreeing with what a previous reviewer wrote, this is not a how to draw book and would likely be most useful for those who are past that stage and would like to learn more about more advanced stages, such as coloring, shading, and backgrounds, along with extra information about the dragons themselves. Therefore, the book has much more potential for reuse and reference, rather than being tossed to the side when people are past the "okay, I can draw circles, lines, and other shapes now" (stick frame) stage.That also makes it great for the non-artist dragon lovers!More about the content and the organization of it:Each chapter begins with larger art of the final piece and specifications of the type of dragon. It then goes into biology and the various other genera and species within that category. Though the book may cover 13 dragons in more detail, there are countless other pieces, such as four other hydras and five other sea orcs, so it has much more content than the product description would lead people to believe.It then goes into behavior and history before the demonstration, which includes various different tips in each section to help an artist along his/her way.The actual detail within each chapter differs for each type of dragon, which makes things much more interesting. There's information ranging from an artist's note mini section about finding inspiration for the basilisk to the skeleton and musculature of the Great Red Welsh Dragon.A last thing worth mentioning, along with a nice index, is that the book has a foldout color poster at the end that compares all of the demonstrated dragons side-by-side (mostly profile view) and includes a size comparison at the bottom.Very well done!

My 11 year old, dragon obsessed son requested this book. It has stunning illustrations and so much information. Great quality. I’m impressed and my son is already asking for similar from this author.

This book was a surprising find for me, I was looking for different artists interpretations of dragons, and in this book I found not only that, but a wide variety of dragons and their relatives, their histories and habitats, and hints at illustrating them using both conventional and digital tools.Most dragon artists tend to fall into a rut when it comes to drawing the heads and bodies,. Most of the dragons tend to end up looking like clones or copies that may have been repositioned. The author of this book shows us a wide variety of head, body, and scale types, and an equally wide variety of poses and backgrounds.The author not only covers the basics in the drawing aspect, but also shows two or three examples of each creature. Though I could wish for some more of the basic structural aspects of the dragons for some of my students, I can understand that the book would have had to be many times it's current size.The illustrations are in full color and the book is beautifully printed and bound. It covers Asian style dragons, dragons of Central Europe, South America, North America, the desert, the seas, and more.The inclusion of the history, origins, and characteristics of the dragons helps keep this from being to dry.This is one of a few books that I think should be included in any dragon artist's library.I would also include John Howe's Forging Dragons, and some books on reptiles, dinosaurs, and bats or birds for those that wish to have winged dragons.I liked this book so much that I ended up buying 3 copies to give to friends and fellow artists.

The author was fantastic in capturing how step by step to draw the dragons. I was very impressed he did the "KILIN" since it is hard to find and my totem animal. Also in the book of unicorns and that too is an excellent book series as the figurines in the front cover are placed inside it. This book of dragons however, he also does in photoshop and gives you clues to steps. You can recreate them in oil paint just the same as he unfolds the development stages of drawing quite well. I just ordered another for my 15 yr old nephew as well who also hopes to become like myself a professional artist and/or teacher. It has many examples or different dragons with great sketches. It will make a fine example to use for adults and kids in classes as the material is interesting enough and appropriate for ALL ages. This artist is NOT a beginner. (he is not Robert Bateman either but then again that is a superior master of our day we all hope to aspire to.) He could be a bit like John Howe though as he chose to be about this painter's skill, and John Howe is certainly worth buying also. It was worth every penny I spent and got the 2 books all for under five dollars for this order.

It is always hard to find a book that my daughter enjoys because if it does not capture her attention in the first few pages she does not bother reading it. She only put it down 2-3 times before she hard read it from cover to cover. It was a great find and a book she really enjoyed.

This book was what I was looking for. It had a huge amount of varying dragons, not just the usual typical, and had lots of detail. My favorite part is that it also had information for computer painting, which most books leave out. The dragon designs were also very interesting and believable.The only downside is the corny "these are what real dragons look like" deal. The slight history to it was interesting, but saying that the dragons are real might throw some readers imaginations off by making them believe that the dragons in the book alone are the only types you can draw. I would have also loved a few pages of just pure reference material for the readers own dragon building, such as drawings of horns, teeth, claws, eyes, and so on.If you are looking for a guide to drawing more realistic dragons, this might help you.

An illustrative book about different dragons. It shows and explains their anatomy, behavior, and habitats.A guide to inspire every dungeon master.

Fantastic book that i bought to complete the collection of 3 , the drawings are intricate and interesting the quality is superb i would suggest this series of books to any dragon lover of artist looking for help in drawing mythical creatures.

The art is fantastic, however it would have been nice to know that it is very much geared towards computer art packages, i was somewhat disappointed at this as i am a more traditional artist

Very good and detailed encyclopedia of the different dragon species, but doesn’t have a lot of helpful ways, to show how to draw them.So the book is probably best suited to people who likes to read 'about' dragons rather than to 'draw' them.

Beautiful book