Drawing Dinosaurs - How to draw dinosaurs for absolute beginners
Depictions of dinosaurs may vary from artist to artist since their existence are solely based on fossils, and so it’s up to your creativity to fill up whatever subtle parts and elements might be missing to depict the image of an animal that is barely known.
Most trunks/bodies of ornithopods are basically oval and so are their heads, but I find it easier to start with a sphere when establishing head shapes so I could just add the length of the muzzle and level the mouth line just below the cross reference line of the sphere (assuming that the upper outline of the jaw starts from there). The tails are stiff as they presumably used this to balance their weight, especially if they needed to stand on two feet. The length and thickness of the arms/front limbs varies on the specific kind of ornithopod, but the back legs are always significantly thicker and more muscular. iguanodon (since it was first discovered at times when the existence of dinosaurs was not even known and studied yet) also belongs to this group. It was known for the feature of its hands that makes it look like it had five fingers. The one is a spike that served as the thumb, three connected middle fingers, and a long pinky.
The thyreoporans, commonly known as armored dinosaurs, are quadrupedal herbivores, and as the name suggests, these are the ones who are either covered in exoskeletons or possessing bone plates and spikes. They may not be the smartest of the bunch, (for having a brain size very disproportionate form their huge and bulky body size) and they didn’t move fast either (stegosaurs couldn’t even run), but nature had given them a very good way to protect themselves from their predators. And that is either a body armor, a club, or a long and thick set of spikes. Two kinds of dinosaur family groups that belong to this category are the stegosaurias and ankylosaurias.
The theropods are the bipedal dinosaurs that you will usually see as savages and dominant hunters in movies, and for a good reason. The most popular dinosaur, tyrannosaurus, is said to have grown an estimation of 40 feet and weight about 8000 kilograms and it’s not even the biggest kind (the spinosaurus was said to possibly have grown up to 59 feet). But not all of them are giants. The known smallest theropod, parvicursor, is said to be comparable to the size of a chicken. Most theropods are carnivores, but some studies say that a few of them must have been omnivores and herbivores.
When drawing faces or heads alone, the subtle details, intricate contour dimensions and skin textures can be easily portrayed, so sometimes it needs more work.
A detailed step-by-step instructions including several examples are available in the book. https://l2draw.com/collections/drawing-for-beginners/products/drawing-dinosaurs-how-to-draw-dinosaurs-for-absolute-beginners