http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dh8egQiPzQThis is a tutorial on how to draw a generic raptor (scientifically refered to as dromaeosaurids). This was drawing with the mouse, however, so it doesn't look as good as it would have had I drawn it on pencil and paper.
Raptors typically follow the same formula with the way their body looks. This formula includes:
-Slender, S-shaped neck
-Long, rounded snout
-Long arms with three-fingered hands
-Four digits on the feet (dewclaw, the sickleclaw, and the two toes that supports the animal's weight)
-Long tail
-Digitigrade stance, like other dinosaurs (this means they stand on their toes like cats and dogs)
There can be variations among species, however. For instance, the newly discovered balaur has two sickle claws on each foot and only two digits on the hands. Austroraptor, on the other hand, has very short arms for a raptor. In order to avoid inaccuracies, look at professional artwork and skeletal remains of the species you want to draw.
While some people do prefer the scaly look of the old-school raptors, that is no longer considered accurate. According to remains, raptors were indeed feathered. So if you want to be scientifically accurate, make sure to cover your raptor in feathers.
Some of the body parts can be tricky, but if you think of them as basic shapes, they'll become a littl easier. For instance, the thigh can be drawn more easily if you picture it like a bowling pin facing towards the ground. The body itself can be thought of as a shampoo bottle almost. However, do not use dog-like proportions for the body.
When drawing the feet, resist the urge to pad them like mammalian feet and instead look at bird feet for a more accurate representation. The sickle claw should be raised above the ground. The sickleclaw itself is not dramatically larger than the other claws.
A few other details to remember; raptors have large pelvic bones between their legs, so make sure to include this if you want a more accurate representation. They have large openings in their heads, so you want to draw an outline of these. If you want to draw ears on your raptor, present them as small holes as they did not have external ear structures. Many raptors were found with bony eye rings present. This means they could not move their eyes, so their pupils should always be at the center of the eye.
Unless your raptor has a broken tail, do not give it a bendy tail. Raptor tails were mostly fused vertebrate and used for balance. They had very little mobility on them. So the tail should always be faced straight out behind the animal, never sharply curved like in Jurassic Park.
Another thing to remember that even documentaries sometimes forget, do not draw the hands with the palms facing downward. This is an inaccurate position. Due to the ulna and radius being fused together, movement is impossible. Raptor hands, like other theropods, were always placed with their palms facing towards each other as if to clap. They did have great flexibility in the wrists, allowing them to bend up and down to a great degree than human wrists can. Also keep in mind that raptor digits weren't very flexible and likely didn't have a lot of strength in them.
When drawing their arms, do not use mammalian arms (like kangaroos) as references. Instead turn to bird wings. The shape of a raptor's arm is closer to a bird wing. In fact, raptor arms were basically primitive bird wings, just with claws and shaped more like half arms/wings than true wings.
It is believed that raptors could replace their teeth, so don't be afraid to make their teeth different sized. While all the same shape, some teeth will be longer than others. Typically the teeth start out short in the front, get longer in the middle, and then become short again. This can change depending on species or if the raptor had lost some teeth.
Contrary to what was initially believed, raptors, at least some species, are now thought to be nocturnal. So if you want your raptor character to remain faithful to how the species was actually like, portray them as being night lovers and active mostly at night, and resting or sleeping during the day. Also, raptor jaws were stronger than initially believed. Deinonychus is said to have a bite strength strong enough to crack bone.
Raptors were likely social animals and traveled in groups. Social structures might have been more similiar to a flock of birds than a pack of mammals. Since dinosaurs are closely related to birds, birds would be a better place to look for hints in dinosaur behavior than mammals.
If you want a big raptor, go with something like utahraptor (the biggest raptor of them all). Do not use megaraptor. Megaraptor is not a true raptor, with the claw going on the hand like baryonyx, not on the foot.
I might be forgetting some things, but I will mention one more thing. Do not portray your raptor as being willing to take on a tyrannosaurus. Like most predators today that would rather run away from a much larger predator, the same was most likely true for raptors. Going up against a powerful animal with one of the strongest bites in the animal world would have been suicidal. It would pretty much end like how it did in Jurassic Park.
