The Art of Drawing Dragons, Mythological Beasts, and Fantasy Creatures

The Art of Drawing Dragons, Mythological Beasts, and Fantasy Creatures is an extensive book for anyone interested in learning to draw fantasy creatures and pictures. A step by step approach is taken so it is suitable for beginners. The texture and structures that make up dragons and different creatures are broken down and highlighted, and materials and techniques are tackled too. The author also includes some history and background information for the creatures in each project. It is a more in depth study with plenty to get your teeth in to. Overall a very good book.

Excellent guide to drawing dragons! I used this alongside my pupils aged 9-11 to produce high quality, effective drawings and they enjoyed following the easy, step-by-step guide.

Excellent book for mid-Lever to advanced artists. I loved the format and the overall look of the book.
The descriptions and design was absolutely phenomenal. I read the book with my 10 year old granddaughter who I was visiting for Halloween and she said there were several that she knew she could try to emulate, but in no way was she at that level. She wished there was more books like this but more at a beginner level in the same detail.
I love these books and I have reviewed several and I have a friend who is advanced and I know she is going to be excited when she gets this for Christmas from me!

I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a great artistic book for drawing dragons!

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was a fun instructional art book of various fantasy creatures, not just dragons. It is a step-by-step drawing instruction. I'm not sure if it's a complete beginner book, as certain things seemed a bit complicated for a beginner, but it has a lot of great step-by-step and tips for anyone who wants to draw and paint fantasy.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

This art book is about drawing dragons and other mythological and fantasy creatures. This was ideal as I am quite creative and I also play Dungeons and Dragons so this was good for learning how to draw these creatures as well as being able to adapt from what has been taught.

Rating: 5⭐
Would I Read It Again? Yes as I can use this whenever I want to draw dragons and other creatures
Would I Recommend it? Yes

This art instruction book includes tips on materials to use, as well as tips for shading/strokes. The bulk of the book contains step by step instructions on how to draw various dragons. I followed the instructions for the Fafnir, a Norse dragon, the instructions were easy to follow and my dragon looked similar to the picture. This book also contains instructions on how to draw other mythical creatures, such as Grendel, fairies, gremlins, and many more! I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to sharpen their fantasy drawing skills!

This is a lovely book and the drawings are stunning. I can see that this would have a place in our junior school library. However, I think it will be of more use for children and adults that are keen artists and would like to hone their style. Whilst the illustrations are set out as step-by-step, implying that anyone could follow them, it seems to me that after the third stage of drawing the technique ramps up. Stages 1 -3 are quite basic and easy to follow, but the detail in these amazing drawings are then crammed into maybe three or four more steps. I think they would be quite difficult to achieve without a lot of practise!

Having said that, this is a wonderful book for anyone who wants to improve their craft but don't buy this thinking a beginner can create plausible illustrations because I think they will come away disappointed.

This is a really fun book.

When I saw it, I immediately thought of my niece that likes to draw. I would think that this would be for a beginner, but more at an intermediate level.

The share volume of creatures is amazing and what I really loved was that they were sourced from diferent cultures.

I just wished that the drawings had more detailed steps, but again, I see this book as at an intermediate level.

Michael Dobrzycki really did a great work.

The Art of Drawing Dragons, Mythological Beasts, and Fantasy Creatures is a new volume in the Art of Drawing series - this volume by Michael Dobrzycki. Originally published in 2007, this reformat and re-release 3rd Nov 2020 by Quarry on their Walter Foster imprint, is 144 pages and available in paperback format.

This volume has a similar format to the other familiar (and beloved) volumes in the series. The introduction covers tools, materials, some texture techniques, and some general drawing info (very basic). The following chapters contain the tutorials, arranged thematically: types of dragon, dragons from different cultures worldwide, mythological beasts, and fantasy creatures. Each of the tutorials contains step by step line drawing from basic outline to finished drawing. I felt some of the steps hopped over a lot of intermediate refinement, but all-in-all they're followable and clearly illustrated. The tutorials are chosen from a wide variety of world mythologies and include both universally known and lesser known creatures.

I could see this booklet, bundled with a drawing set, being a superlative gift for a young artist up to adult age. The drawings are detailed enough to look quite professional, but not so extremely advanced that they would frustrate a keen beginner.

Five stars. I love that there are fantasy tutorial books available from this classic art-publishing imprint. The world would be boring indeed if the only drawing books were on portraiture, horses, dogs, and florals.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

--Great Resource for Dragon and Mythological Beast Lovers--

I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley, and here are my thoughts:

The artwork in this book is outstanding, and while a beginning (especially young) artist might wish for more drawing instructions, this book would be fine for someone at the intermediate level or someone with a lot of confidence to start drawing. Each dragon or creature begins with a rough block outline of guidelines and is completed within four to seven steps, which means it doesn't take you from start to finish in great detail. Indeed, given the amount of exquisite detail in the final drawing, it would take a book of several hundred pages if each new line had it's own explanation.

Therefore, if you're looking for a beginner's book, this might not be it. However, if you are buying for someone who loves mythological creatures, this book actually doubles as a beautiful reference book to mythological creatures, as there is a brief explanation about the historical background of each.

Because there are dragon lovers present in all age groups, I would rate this book as suitable for all that would appreciate seeing some of the best and varied dragon art around. I love how there are many types of dragons from different cultures represented in this book. Then, if someone is specifically and ONLY wanting a book specific to learning how to draw dragons, I would highly recommend this book for those at intermediate level and above, to be able to follow the drawing instructions.

From a personal perspective this book is a joy to look through.

It was intriguing to find page 6/74 upside down. An unexpected audience interactivity. {grin]

Even if I were only to keep this book on my living room end-table it brings a smile to my face. My ability to learn to draw is less than most, however, I always hold hope -- the Art of Drawing Dragons, Mythological Beasts, and Fantasy Creatures allows my imagination to soar.

Here be Dragons
Michael Dobrzycki demonstrates how to draw a variety of dragons in his book The Art of Drawing Dragons, Mythological Beasts, and Fantasy Creatures: Step-by-step techniques for drawing fantastic creatures of folklore and legend. A little over half of this book is dedicated to dragons in their various forms. Each creature has a brief description of where they originated, and what their primary traits are. The drawings themselves range from cute to creepy. For example, the Naga has a man’s head on a snake’s body, and there is only so much you can do with those qualities. Drawing the mythological beasts and fantasy creatures in the second half of the book, seem more like bonus content than a continuation of the book’s theme. The drawings themselves are a little harder than the step by step process the book promises. So, this book may be better for artists with some experience drawing. There are about five to seven steps that start with basic shapes, and jump to a full shaded drawing. The text does give clues to what pencils and shapes to use when creating the drawings. Overall, this is not a book that teaches how to freehand draw dragons, but how to draw Michael Dobrzycki’s designs. It is always fun to learn new techniques and shapes to draw dragons. This book is great for artists that love drawing creatures, and want to try their hand at a different style.

What an interesting book, a unique mixture between a how to book and a bestiary. It is important to mention that this is not a beginners book, or in other words, it lacks the detail that a beginner's book has, it assumes that you know the basics of figure drawing and proportions. It explains the components of the creatures that wants you to draw, but in its most basic and broken down forms. A guiding hand that doesn't give you details, which might be a little complicated for those who are just beginning their monster drawing phase.
The language that uses is really simple, easy to understand, and the fact that heavily relies on images for their step by step drawing process is a great advantage for people who have a predominant visual learning process, as is the case with most artists.

Some very nice designs in this one!

Like most drawing books, it starts out talking about materials, but then it goes into a very good segment about shading followed by textures. This is where the detail in the drawings makes all the difference. Then it goes into the usual information about shapes and constructing different parts of your creatures, giving perspectives.

It then gives designs for sixteen types of dragons, serpents, wyrms or wyverns with step-by-step instructions. Some of these looked pretty easy, others much more challenging. The Hydra particularly appeals to me and the designs aren't too cartoony which I appreciate.

Then we get another sixteen of legendary dragons, etc. from world mythology. The section following that gives instructions for eleven other creatures from mythology such as a Sphinx, Centaur and Gorgon, followed by the last section with seventeen different fantasy creatures like a Leprechaun, Troll, Minotaur, Cyclops, Harpy and Phoenix.

Overall an excellent resource, though I wouldn't recommend it for someone new to drawing. Getting the shapes and detail right for these will take some practice!

My son is a HUGE fan of dragons and we have incorporated this book into our art lessons and he is loving it!!