#rly like the curved shapes of his skull here

[f-nodragonart]

excuse my shoddy colouring aghsgd, I just wanted to maybe get some thoughts on the overall anatomy of this dragon? if it helps any, he is based on the borzoi breed of dogs o: 

here he is without his wings for visibility of the body itself (if that doesnt work he can be found here: https://imgur.com/a/KLi3a )

ohh, I love borzoi! they– along w/ whippets/greyhounds– have some rly neat torso shapes~

first, I have one general piece of advice: when sketching, try to draw the base body BEFORE integuments like fur/feathers/frills. while I can’t know for sure, it feels like u may have tried to draw everything at once– w/ the fur present– before planning out the base anatomy. planning out the base body helps IMMENSELY when figuring out the anatomy of a critter, b/c fur can hide important limb connections, confuse body weight/shape, etc. 

and to continue off of that point, pay attention to the way you layer/shape the fur itself, b/c there are certain ways to make fur appear as if it’s got more weight vs flatness. if you draw the fur laying more parallel to the outline of the main body, it will appear more flat, as if there isn’t much fur between the outer line of the silhouette and the flesh beneath. see the fur I drew on the front line of the legs below– it lies flat against the front of the legs, thus is closer to the flesh. pushing the fur out more perpendicular from the body-lines gives it more volume, thus “implies” the flesh is deeper beyond the silhouette, like the fur I drew at the front and back of the neck below. you can even push depth further if u make the fur longer. compare the fur I drew at the front of the throat to the fur I drew on the spine– they’re both perpendicular to the main body outline, but the throat fur has more volume due to its length

the big thing I had to fix first was the torso– it was way too short to support a proper ribcage. thus, I lengthened the torso, which allowed me to deepen the ribcage as well, b/c it was way too thin to hold the organs and support the body. it’s also worth noting that I deepened it BEHIND the front limbs, while thinning it out IN FRONT of the front limbs. remember that the shoulders of the front limbs should meet the very ‘tip’ of the ribcage (at least in a “strong” quadrupedal structure like this). the fluffy fur definitely hides a lot of this, but the depth of the front of the chest should still not be more substantial than the depth of the end of the chest, even w/ additional fur

and this doesn’t even take into account the wings

which would need substantial keel/muscle space on the ribcage, if ur going for realism. the wing itself is also too small for flight; I’d particularly pay attention to the length of the arms underneath the feathers. the feather layering could also use a bit of work– I’ve got a feather reference here (ctrl+f search “Feather Arrangement” at the link to find it) if it helps at all. for folded wings specifically, I also drew this rough outline for the same guide, which might help out some

as for the legs, remember that the front limb elbows in this kinda quad structure should just abt align w/ the bottom of the ribcage (w/o the fur, of course), and the knees of the hind legs should just abt align w/ the height of the front limb elbows. the fur hides a lot of the joints, but there should still be a distinctive curve to the knee, as seen below

I also pushed the paws of the both the front and hind legs back, b/c more natural/balanced stances for these kinda quads base the paws (particularly the front paws) more directly under the body rather than forward. many “strong” quads have their hind paws align w/ their rumps, but Borzoi push them back a little further than their rumps, as seen above

I’d also recommend pushing the tail out from the body rather than having it tucked up against the rump. Borzoi tails are thin enough to tuck up close like that, but thick tails like the one ur dragon has aren’t as flexible, esp at the very base where u have to account for hip/rump musculature

as for the head, remember that skulls need room for a brain case behind the jaw. yeah, the sizes of brain cases can vary, but it looks like the skull of ur dragon dips inwards behind the ear, leaving 0% room for any brain case at all

hope this helps!

-Mod Spiral