How to draw a Tyrannosaurus Rex

Here are six tutorials I found through a Google search that tell you how you could draw a Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex). Not all are equally useful, but especially the fifth tutorial seems most promising, though the others are good for stylistic choices. The ideal would be to draw from live, but these animals no longer roam the western part of North-America, so working from artist’s impressions is the best one can do without making a life study of drawing this animal based on scientific knowledge.

Number 1. HowStuffWorks – How to Draw Dinosaurs: Tyrannosaurus Rex

Easy to follow tutorial in 8 steps. However, it doesn’t teaches you anything about how to draw a T. Rex in any pose or from any direction. Here’s my first attempt.

Number 2. Hellokids.com – How to draw a Tyrannosaurus

Although the drawing is much more stylized, the tutorial is not as clear as it could be. And again no hints how to turn this into other poses or perspectives. Here is my first attempt.

Number 3. Dinosaur Cartoons – Fun and Games – How to Draw a Cartoon T-Rex

A 26-step Flash cartoon tutorial by Charley Parker, which is very clear to follow. However, no idea how to draw this dino from different sides and doing different things. Here is my first attempt.

Number 4. Funorma – Learn to draw a dinosaur with Lee J. Ames

Although there is not much text to guide the artist, the drawings are clear enough to understand what should be drawn. I hate to repeat myself, but no indication how to modify this drawing into another pose or perspective. Here is my first attempt.

Number 5. DragoArt – How To Draw A Tyrannosaurus Rex Dinosaur

This is a very clear and easy to follow tutorial on how to draw a T. Rex. However, it assumes quite some draftsmanship and modifying is somewhat cumbersome (although not as hard as with the previous tutorials). Here is my first attempt.

Number 6. YouTube – How To Draw A T-Rex

Of course, YouTube is a good resource for educational videos, like how to draw a T. Rex. Although at first glance this video seems very instructional, the artist goes through the demonstration so fast, it really isn’t possible to draw along. Here’s my first attempt based on watching the above video. I just couldn’t keep up.

Now was it worth doing all those tutorials?

I think it was. Only doing one tutorial is too limiting. My idea is that if you have done several tutorials on a subject like drawing a T-Rex, you’re able to see for yourself what the structures are in this animal and how you could interpret it in your own artistic style.

What other options are there?

Quite frankly, I can see only two. Get some finished artwork and trace that to learn how the shapes are ordered, and try to build from circles (like in the video, but more slowly). I’m trying both, but I need more time to learn how the masses are distributed on this powerful beast.

Tapping your creativity

A strange thing occurred to me today. I actually learned something I didn’t know. However, not by having a new experience, but by thinking about past experiences, about life and how humans differ from each other, how we each have our unique perspective.

It started when I rode my bike through the little town I live in. I saw the cars driving by, and it occurred to me that how funny this scene would be for someone who lives 30 years in the future. Cars pushed forwards by combustion engines, polluting the atmosphere, while it is so much easier to drive cars with electric drive trains. The car would also appear to our visitor from the future as a closed case, almost like a moving coffin. He could hardly marvel at what’s inside. What use it is to have an object of beauty, like an automobile, if you don’t use it to inspire other people to create beauty of their own? Why keep it for yourself, while your possession could accomplish so much more in this world, by letting other people enjoy it as much as you enjoy it?

I laughed. The world we live in is so quaint, so egotistical, so limited in what people want to accomplish. Why would you fill your life with stuff, with goods, while there are much better things to do? Put your energy in creating things, in letting other people having a good time while they see what you’ve accomplished, and how they could build on that, mix and mash, to create something unique for others to enjoy, so they can be inspired as well.

Well, that is in the future, a place we don’t yet inhabit.

What are we going to do, horde more stuff, or, instead, create stuff of our own? The choice is ours. Either we stay passive, as we are now, and let others rule our lives, or we become part of an active lifestyle, where being creative is the norm and in which you have to produce something yourself in order to consume what others have produced.

Of course, according to William Gibson:

The future is already here — it is just unevenly distributed.

I could rephrase that as:

The only thing that is keeping us down is our own imagination.

That is all.

How to digest new stuff and ideas

When I was in university college, as a freshman, I was taught how to learn, how to ingest study material. It was largely concerned about memorizing stuff. How do you get facts into your head and keep it there for as long as you need it there?

The idea was to do repetition, work your way through a text, and repeat it after a few days or weeks. The questions in the textbook were to ensure you had understood the theory behind the text and had enough of the facts stored into your memory to reason about the subject you’re studying.

We learned about skimming, going through a text fast, only remembering key words and phrases. This was to get a quick overview, some idea what the text was about, without getting lost in the details. You also had to make sure that the text was complete, or if you perhaps needed additional text or information, in order to fully understand the text. If you did, you had to get hold of those additional texts first, before you continued to the next phase.

Next, there was the detailed reading, where you tried to understand what the author meant, what his or her reasoning was. At this point, you needed the supplied questions, to test if you really understood the subject. Either those questions were in the text, or at the end of a chapter. You dealt with the questions as they were supplied by the author of the textbook. Also, the chapters were to be read in order.

Finally, there was a third reading, where reading in order wasn’t mandatory, but rather reading according to subject matter. With that I mean that you took notes, transcribing your thoughts, what you found interesting, and –most importantly– what you didn’t understand. Here either the additional texts, or the index of the textbook were recommended. If you didn’t understand an item, you could look it up in the index or use the references in the notes for additional reading. Anyway, you were in the “dissecting stage” of the reading. All doubts about clarity of the text and the reasoning by the author should be gone after this stage. If not, you should ask your tutor or professor next time you attended college or the practicum.

Now in this third stage, you had to be a critical reader. The idea was that you’re supposed to foster the independent mind, the creative thinker inside yourself. That imaginary person should be able to write down new ideas that withstand the critique of fellow experts in the field. In order to prove something, you had to prove that the opposite of what you claimed was false. So, the intensive third reading required you to do a lot of what-ifs, judging alternatives to what the author proposed in his or her text.

Luckily, young adolescent minds tend to think like that, not accepting anything, unless it is proven to be true, without reservation. It’s when relationships deepen (later in life) the obligatory compromises creep in, and this kind of black and white reasoning is blurred in everyday life. You experience by trial and error that some things are better not discussed if you want to maintain a relationship. Relationships are mostly about what is not said, then about what is being said to each other. It cements the trust people have in each other.

Inquisitive minds aren’t so trusting. They take nothing for granted. This attitude should be applied to study books as well. New ideas are often prompted by people that aren’t yet familiar with existing ideas. Some of these bright young minds might be arguing that other ideas might be just as valid, or even more valid. In science that means old ideas are either supplemented or replaced by new ideas. Of course, the ideas have to be tested in the real world, because ideas are only ideas, and reality doesn’t always act according to human fancy.

But don’t take my word for it how to best acquire new knowledge and ideas. Find out what works best for you. Rules about learning aren’t set in stone. They are just rules of thumb, methods that seem to work for most situations. Perhaps you have found or developed superior methods, or methods that are better suited for your situation. By all means, don’t hesitate to use your own rules if they work for you. And perhaps you could spare some of your time to enlighten other people with your insights. I’m always curious of new methods of speed learning.

I’m eagerly waiting for comments. Bring it on, people! I love it when proven wrong. That is when I learn something about myself and the world around me.

That is all.