How To To Draw A Dog
Introduction
Dogs are probably a lot easier to draw than you think. All it takes is a few basic shapes, some detail work, and a little shading to make them come to life!
Draw two ovals that intersect at two points.
Now, draw two ovals that intersect at two points. The first oval should be about 1/3 the size of your overall drawing and the second one 1/2 the size of your drawing. These are “heads” for your dog, but you can make them smaller or larger depending on how big you want your final dog to be (just remember to keep them proportionate). The long point of each oval should align with one another along their central axis (the imaginary line between both circles). This will help create a nice silhouette later on!
Now that we have our basic shape, it’s time to add some detail using shading techniques like cross-hatching and stippling.
Define the legs and the rest of the body.
Now it’s time to define the legs and the rest of the body. Just as you would draw a human figure, you’ll need to draw both arms and legs. The anatomy is actually quite similar—just take note of how they differ from our own limbs. Remember that dogs have longer snouts than humans do, so their neck muscles are less pronounced and there’s a little bump where bone meets muscle along their spine (this is called “withers”).
In addition to drawing the forelegs and hind legs, you should also include elements like paws, claws and toes. For this step I recommend using pen or pencil so that your lines will be visible when adding washes later on in Step 10: Add Tone And Highlights To Your Dog Drawing!
Draw the muzzle and add eyes, ears and a nose.
Now you can add the muzzle, eyes, ears and nose.
The muzzle should be wider than the head. The nose should be a triangle with two lines coming out of it. The eyes should be below the muzzle and the ears should be on top of it.
Add details to the dog’s face.
Now you’ll want to add details to the dog’s face. Start by drawing a few small circles for his eyes and a curved line for his nose. Add some tiny dots inside those shapes to show where they’re looking and then add eyebrows above them. Draw a curved line at the bottom of the head for his mouth with two more lines at either end of it: one just under his nose, and another right above where you’ve drawn your first eye circle. If you’re having trouble finding these places, make sure that all three lines are roughly equidistant from each other!
Now we’ll move on to drawing in some fur on this little guy here! The easiest way I’ve found is using branched brush strokes (I’m using Photoshop) like so: You can see what this looks like below:
Create the hind leg and paws.
Now you can create the hind leg and paws.
- First, draw a rectangle on the bottom of your page and add two circles for the paw pads.
- Then, draw four rectangles for each paw pad, one for each toe and three more to represent nails on both sides of the paw. This is a little tedious but it will be worth it when you see how great your final product looks!
- Finally add in some detail by drawing fur around all sides of each foot as well as on top of them.
Sketch in front legs and paws.
Sketch in front legs and paws.
- Draw the front legs. As you draw the right leg, note that it will be slightly shorter than the left. The two back paws should be stretched out with their claws facing away from us, making a line between them that is parallel to the shoulder line of your dog’s body. The front paws are placed under this line.
Continue to add details to the paws.
- Add details to the paws.
- Add details to the legs.
- Add details to the face.
- Add details to the tail.
- Add details to the fur.
- Add details to the ears, nose, mouth and eyes!
You just learned how to draw a dog!
You just learned how to draw a dog. Now you can use this method to draw any kind of dog, be it a bulldog, poodle or even a chihuahua.
Conclusion
As you can see, drawing a dog is not as difficult a task as some beginners may think. Just remember to keep your lines soft and light. This will help you create intricate details when needed and allow you to refine the outline of your dog over time. If at any point during the process you get stuck or want to know more about how to draw animals, check out our other tutorials on this subject.
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