Year of the Dragon Illustration

Figure 1. Sketch

Figure 2. Detail Sketch

“That is awesome! Really well done.”

What Was Done

I illustrated this dragon to pay tribute to the Chinese Year of the Dragon 2024.

How Was It Done?

I start all of my illustration projects with a pencil sketch (Figure 1. Sketch). Knowing that my design was going to be bisymmetrical, I only needed to sketch out half of the dragons face. Once I was happy with the sketch, I scanned it and placed it into Illustrator. On a separate layer, I traced the lines using the pen tool, modified areas, and add a bit of detail, and then mirrored my work and stitched them together to have the full dragon face.

When I was finished with the base line art, I printed out my design and worked out where and how I wanted the detail colors to fill out the illustration (Figure 2. Detail Sketch). I prefer to pencil sketch right on top of my print out, while other methods would be to tape tracing paper on top of the print out and sketch on that. Because I’m always modifying my design as I work in Illustrator, I use this sketch as my road map for the detail color I didn’t bother to scan it back in to trace. On other illustrations, I might scan it back in and trace the detail color. It depends on my mood at the time of creating.

I go with my instincts and my artistic knowledge for the rest of the illustration. Choosing colors always takes me a lot of time to get the depth and feeling I’m after. The last step I like to do is not always necessary—especially if it will be printed on t-shirts, but I alway like to finish off an illustration like this with some texture in the background and foreground to give it more life.

How Could This Be Utilized?

The bold image is perfect for clothing apparel and stickers. It can also be utilized as a vivid wall mural outside the front entrance of a store front.

The Details

• Client: N/A
• Date: March 2024
• Tags: Logo, Illustration
• Design Tools: Adobe Illustrator
  Hand Drawn