Hello!

My plan is to draw a dinosaur, a triceratops.
I started off by doing this testdrawing of just the head to try some techniques and see if I was able to draw a dinosaur.
It was really hard to figure out what technique to apply and where.

The drawing I am about to do is of the whole dinosaur body, but I wanted to stop at this point to see how I can make this better.

I don't think I managed to give the horns a "bony" feel. Any tips on how to make that look?
The shield on the back of the head looks flat in my opinion (I'm gonna change the look of the horns and shield in the next drawing, they look a bit odd I see now)
Should I make the outlines less obvious? The cheek looks spheric.

Any suggestion you can give me is appreciated!

Lot's of questions, thank you for your time!

Click to view attachment

Hi Kalinga,

I am sure many artists/teachers could give you some great guidance here. Although I am greatly still in the learning stages myself, I would have to agree I think your outlines are very strong. Many of my cartoon drawings have solid lines and shapes where as with realizm I believe the outlines should blend in and almost be none existant.

I really like your drawing and I think you are off to a great start, hope I helped,

all the best,

Brian

I am not sure what they are suppose to look like ...but first thing is if you want a boney looking horn then you have to darken where the ridges are and fade them into the horn ....could take some time to do ....also brian is right about the outline .. the horns you see the outline in dark pencil ..you should stay that dark and bring it out slowly so you do not see the outline ...that gives it the 3D look ....the thing behind the head I looked one up online and in yours it looks as if the plate bows out away from the head not inward to the head like a bowl ...maybe try highlighting the eadges around the plate and darken the inside to get that look ....plus they have small horns I think that go around the eadges of the plate .

I sure hopes that helps ..

Thanks Brian and Kim for your help!

I'm gonna have a new try, trying another technique on the skin texture.
It's hard to know exactly what a dinosaur looked like, drawings of it also have different looks; I was going for a "rhino look" but maybe lizard is more like it.

I think you're heading in the right direction here but need a model perhaps to set light direction and then you need to decide and create whatever skin texture you're looking for.

Now of course when I say 'model' we know you can't find a real dinosaur to sketch but there are models from children's plastic ones to anatomical models in museums that may help you build the shape and structure and decide on skin texture.

Another place you may like to visit is James Guerney's blog. He is the illustrator who created 'Dinotopia' - exquisite drawings and paintings of an imaginary land where people and dinosaurs live happily together. His site is a treasure trove of information on art in general as well as insight as to how he creates a drawing. This may help you.