How to Draw a Realistic Dragonfly

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Last Updated: June 17, 2025

Dragonflies are beautiful and amazing insects. The are such graceful and agile fliers. Here are a few simple steps on how to draw a very realistic dragonfly.

Steps

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You can add the eyes toward the end of the drawing.

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This will be the thorax. (remember this is still a rough sketch, details will be added after the basic body shape is finished.)
Now draw a long tube shape, this will be the abdomen, make sure it skinny and connected to the square you drew earlier which is the thorax. The end of the abdomen should have something that looks like a claw, make sure it is very small, this is what the dragonfly uses to hold the female while mating.
The wings are very easy, simply draw two thick tube looking drawings, make sure they are wide, draw two on each side coming from the thorax and ending toward the middle of the abdomen.
Next is small details such as eyes. The eyes are two long circles on the head. Make sure the eyes do not come out of the head.
Now another small detail, the colour on the wings. There should be a small collection of dark coloured scales on the bottom wing from the closest part to the dragonfly, to the middle of the bottom wing. This is the same for each side.
Now all you have to do is any other simple details such as striped on the abdomen, markings on the thorax, and to make it look very realistic add shadowing and veins on the wings. Also make sure you do the small markings on the thorax. And if you want to make it very realistic, take out small pieces on the wings. Dragonflies barely ever have perfect wings.