Sometimes an artist gets tired of drawing real things, things they know exist, and things everyone else has already seen. They want to step out of the mold of regularity, and explore alternative realities. However, many make the mistake of diving in to the unknown too soon, and come up with creatures that just look stupid, not based in reality at all, to the point they are totally incomprehensible. A good fantasy drawing at least looks like it could be real, somehow, somewhere.
So to begin with, start by getting good at drawing a real animal. If your animal is going to be a vertebrate (having a backbone) draw an animal that is similar. Study how your animal moves, where its' joints are, how its' muscles cover its body, and so forth.
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In this case I drew a Shih Tzu dog. These dogs are commonly kept as pets, but are considered lower intelligence. There is something about these dogs that people either love or hate. They are small and can be good house pets or, like most small dogs, they can be nasty, particularly if people do not socialize them correctly. This nature is why I selected to combine the Shih Tzu with a lizard to give it a blood thirsty look.
When you are starting out to draw fantasy animals the best thing, rather than making up an animal out of thin air, is to combine your animal with another. You need to think about what qualities your animal has, and what qualities you want your fantasy animal to have, then decide what animal in reality has these attributes, find a photograph of this animal, and practice drawing it.
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Now imagine how they would look together, remember when you are just beginning, keep it fairly simple, even half one animal, and half the other. This is my very first fantasy drawing. I actually think the bow in the hair makes it more interesting. The best thing about drawing fantasy animals, is that if you goof a bit, nobody can tell you it is wrong. Some basic physical laws always need to be true, one of which is that animals are symmetrical, in fact the only exception to this is some crustaceans, where one claw is bigger on one side than the other, still they do have claws on both sides. Another law is balance, if you are drawing an animal that is standing or running, make sure you have legs that can support the weight of your beast.
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When you have done one drawing you will want to try others, combining animals together that you would have never imagined. At some point you may want to try combining three or more animals into one. Take it further, keep the body of one animal, and combine with the skin of another. Play around with distorting certain features so that eventually your fantasy drawings do not resemble any animals people are familiar with. After drawing some of these your mind will be able to come up with complete fantasy animals all your own. Have fun!
