How to Draw Dinosaurs: The Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing Dinosaurs for Teens & Adults
If you've always wanted to draw dinosaurs but thought it was too complex, this book was made for you. How to Draw Dinosaurs by Vault Editions takes 40 iconic prehistoric creatures and breaks each one down into a clear, approachable 12-step process, developed by a professional illustrator and designed specifically for beginners.
You'll learn to build complex anatomy from simple shapes, progress through structure and proportion, and finish with the kind of surface detail, scales, ridges, armour, eyes, that make each creature feel genuinely alive on the page. Whether you're a complete beginner picking up a pencil for the first time or an artist looking to level up your drawing ability, the method is structured to build your confidence and skills with every tutorial you complete. With a free digital PDF of the book included, you can draw along on your tablet or take it wherever you go.
What Makes This Dinosaur Drawing Book Different?
Most how-to-draw guides stop at the silhouette, but How to Draw Dinosaurs from Vault Editions goes much further.
How to Draw Dinosaurs was illustrated by Syadat Baihaqi, founder of Blasphemy Ink Studio and one of the most distinctive illustrators working in the heavy metal and dark art scene today. He specialises in work for musicians and bands, creating posters, merchandise, and album artwork loaded with atmosphere and technical precision.
Drawing inspiration from mythology, horror, and sci-fi, his work brings something most dinosaur art books never attempt: a sense of drama, menace, and vitality; these aren't museum diagrams or simplified cartoons; they're illustrations with genuine atmosphere and edge. Here’s a look at the T. rex tutorial, and see how you can progress from two basic circles in step one to a fully realised, detailed illustration by step 12:
Syadat is also the artist behind several other titles in the Vault Editions How to Draw series, including How to Draw Dragons, How to Draw Skulls, and How to Draw Monsters and Beasts.
What’s Inside the Book?
40 Dinosaur Designs Across Every Major Category
This book covers the full sweep of prehistoric life, plus bonus tutorials teaching how to draw skin, scales and armour and a range of expressive eyes to take your drawings to the next level.
What You'll Learn to Draw:
Allosaurus · Allosaurus (Head) · Amargasaurus · Ankylosaurus · Archaeopteryx · Baryonyx · Brachiosaurus · Carnotaurus · Carnotaurus (Head) · Ceratosaurus · Compsognathus · Concavenator · Deinonychus · Dilophosaurus · Dimetrodon · Diplodocus · Edmontosaurus · Gallimimus · Iguanodon · Indoraptor · Megalosaurus · Mosasaurus · Ouranosaurus · Oviraptor · Pachycephalosaurus · Pachyrhinosaurus · Parasaurolophus · Pterodactyl · Quetzalcoatlus · Spinosaurus · Stegosaurus · Styracosaurus · T-Rex (Full Body) · T-Rex (Head) · T-Rex (Skeleton) · Therizinosaurus · Triceratops (Full Body) · Tsintaosaurus · Velociraptor · Velociraptor (Head) · Ridges, Spines and Crests · Skin, Scales & Armour · How-to-Draw Scales · How to Draw Eyes
The Vault Editions 12-Step Drawing Process
Every design in the book is taught using the signature Vault Editions 12-step method — a structured, repeatable process that breaks complex anatomy into manageable stages. You start from the most basic geometric forms and build through proportion, structure, musculature, and finally the intricate surface detail that defines each species. Each step builds logically on the last, so there’s never a moment where the complexity jumps without warning.
Here’s the Triceratops, which demonstrates how the method handles quadrupedal anatomy. Note how the overlapping ellipses drawn in the early steps lock in the proportions before any detail is added:
This approach makes it ideal for:
- Complete beginners who’ve never drawn animals before
- Intermediate artists looking to tackle more complex subjects with confidence
- Digital artists who want a structured workflow they can adapt in Procreate or other apps.
- Comic artists and illustrators who want to add prehistoric creatures to their repertoire
- Nature illustrators who want anatomically grounded reference and technique
Pro Tips Throughout
How to Draw Dinosaurs includes 40 practical Pro Tips, each focused on guidance on topics such as understanding dinosaur anatomy, capturing dynamic movement, conveying weight and scale, and rendering surface details that bring each species to life. These aren’t filler notes; they’re the kind of insight that comes from a working illustrator with years of professional experience.
The Velociraptor Head tutorial is a great example — the finished illustration (shown below) achieves a level of detail and intensity that feels closer to creature concept art than a typical how-to-draw guide. The Pro Tip for this one walks you through how to handle the quill crest so it reads as sharp and directional rather than a random cluster:
The Digital Download Package
Your purchase also includes a free digital download containing:
- Custom Procreate brush set — liners and shaders optimised specifically for drawing dinosaurs, so you can work digitally straight away.
- Free digital copy of the book — perfect for drawing alongside on your tablet
- Printable gridded practice workbook — designed to support your progression as you work through each design
This makes the book equally useful whether you work traditionally with pencil and paper or entirely digitally.
Who Is This Book For?
This book is built for anyone drawn to the darker, more detailed side of illustration — fans of fantasy art, creature design, heavy metal visuals, and sci-fi. Syadat Baihaqi's artwork sets the tone: intense, detailed, and built to teach. You don't need any prior drawing experience to start. But by the time you finish, you'll have worked through 40 professional-level designs and built a genuine foundation in complex animal illustration.
Explore the Full Vault Editions How to Draw Series
How to Draw Dinosaurs is part of a growing library of drawing guides from Vault Editions, each illustrated by world-class artists from the dark art and illustration scene. Other titles in the series illustrated by Syadat include:
Each book uses the same 12-step method and includes a digital download with Procreate brushes and a practice workbook.
Explore the full Vault Editions How to Draw series.
Explore the full Vault Editions How to Draw series.
Ready to Start Drawing?
Whether you’re picking up a pencil for the first time or adding a new subject to an existing practice, this book gives you everything you need to draw dinosaurs and build your skills from day one.
Vault Editions publishes premium illustrated drawing guides for teens and adults. Browse the full How to Draw series today.
