Dragonart

by Jessica Peffer

Book Overview

How to Draw a Dragon: "Cautiously approach the dragon, offer it a piece of candy or a little sister, and draw while it happily munches away."

From the artist behind the wildly popular NeonDragonArt.com, DragonArt will help you create mythical beasts that awe, delight, and disturb the sweet dreams of little ones. Armed only with your trusty pencil and ink pen, you will begin your artistic quest by conquering a super-easy dragon...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581806574
• ISBN13: 9781581806571
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Impact
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.4" x 10.8"
• Age Range: 10 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8

Customer Reviews

A Master artist and tutorial writer

Jessica has an innate gift at teaching the tricks of her trade. She has studied her dragons well, even giving us bone structures, musculatures, and all those little hints about making our dragons look realistic. She provides different paradigms for driving the form of our dragons, and helps us to find our own creative approach. This is one of those books every fantasy artist (or aspiring artist) and lover of dragons (and other fantasy creatures) should definitely have a copy of. When it comes to how she writes tutorials, this is one of those rare books that flows and reads well. Just like her online tutorials, each step is surrounded by suggestions, and each step doesn't leave you hanging or asking questions. This is a good read in general. Also, at the time of this writing, she is working on finishing her second book and has already spoken of her third! Also, between her first and second (and third) books, her artistic talent has jumped leaps and bounds. Looking at this book, you wouldn't expect it to get that much better (its beautiful, already) but her next two books are bound to amaze! Jessica, we anxiously look forward to your next release!

Simply Amazing.

I found this book to be extremely helpful. The author of this book did an amazing job with the illustrations and breaking down the steps where they are able to be followed to the finished product. As far as drawing books go, this was one of the far more helpful and I was thrilled with gaining insight on how to draw the more complicated anatomical features of the fantasy creatures, such as wings with feathers. I suggest this book to anyone who is interested in fantasy drawing, but cannot seem to pinpoint certain features such as feathers, horns, or tails.

A Straightforward Guide to Designing Fantastic Creatures

Dragons are certainly among the most quintessential elements of the fantasy genre and their likenesses comprise one of the cornerstones of the art associated with it. DragonArt: How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures is both an enjoyable browse and a useful guide for anyone interested in creating their own dragons or other fantastic creatures with pencil and paper. DragonArt is divided into three major parts, Fantastic Dragons, Unique Details, and Other Fantasy Creatures, along with an introduction, a section on how to use the book, and a brief guide to fantastic creatures. Lessons in this book are progressive in nature, beginning with fundamentals and moving into increasingly advanced aspects of dragon design, all illustrated with step-by-step illustrations that are punctuated by helpful tips and tricks throughout. And author/artist Jessica "NeonDragon" Peffer has a clear, easy writing style that can be easily comprehended, absorbed, and acted upon, an example of which follows below. "Okay, so we're going to discuss the anatomy of a creature that exists nowhere but in our minds. Sounds kind of silly to say that something made from pure imagination does not look correct, but that will happen if your creature doesn't look believable. To help make your dragon as real as possible, base its structure on real creatures," she writes at one point (page 44). "The ideal dragon is likely a mix of cat, bird, and reptile body types. The trick is choosing which parts to keep and which ones to throw out. You want it to feel like a single creature." This advice, incidentally, is very reminiscent of that given by Leonardo Da Vinci in his notebooks for drawing creatures of this ilk, making Peffer well read or naturally very insightful, either of which speaks well for her. Under "How You Should Make an Imaginary Animal Look Natural," the increasingly famous Renaissance man writes, "You know that you cannot invent animals without limbs, each of which, in itself, must resemble those of some other animal. Hence if you wish to make an animal, imagined by you, appear natural -- let us say a Dragon, take for its head that of a mastiff or hound, with the eyes of a cat, the ears of a porcupine, the nose of a greyhound, the brow of a lion, the temples of an old cock, the neck of a water tortoise." DragonArt also includes guidelines on drawing a number of other sorts of fantastic creatures, including basilisks, chimeras, gargoyles, and griffins. For those interested in applying the guidelines presented in this book, a companion DragonArt Kit: How to Draw & Paint Fantastic Creatures that includes a compressed version of the book and some art supplies will also be available soon. Author Peffer is also the creator of the popular fantasy art Website NeonDragonArt.com, which can give anyone potentially interested in this book the opportunity to get a sense of the kinds of creatures they can learn to create themselves.

Dragonart: How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures

This book not only appeals to adults but to children as well, and it is easy to follow. I sat down with my 8 year old granddaughter and helped her to sketch a dragon. I thought is was absolutely fascinating, and actually purchased it, not to draw dragons but to use it for creating a fantasy plush toy dragon. However, once I saw the sketches and final product, I decided to tackle drawing a few dragons myself and just loved the details and overall look. I am not an expert artist but found this book was written in such a way as it helped my art (of this type) look more professional. Thanks, I would recommend it to anyone.

A must have Book

I have looked at the work Of J Preffer for several years and she has never stopped amazing me. This book does her proud and shows young and old that anything is possible. It is filled with easy to understand tutorials, and many helpful tips. From basic structure to high detail. A major must for any fantasy lover.I look forward to seeing more of her work.