How To Draw A Dog

There's a lot of information available on the internet claiming to show you how to draw a dog, but what they are actually doing, is showing you how someone else can draw a dog!

That's like watching a brain surgeon, and being told you'll be able to do it yourself!

You want to learn how to draw a dog? Then I will show you how.

You can learn to draw a dog, without any previous experience of drawing at all. And you will enjoy it as well!

Dogs are great subjects for drawings and paintings. They're loyal and faithful. They love you unconditionally, and you can always tell what they're thinking because dogs can't lie!

Some of the best drawings of dogs are the ones where the dog appears to be moving, or ‘laughing'! Yes, dogs can laugh; when they have their mouths open, their ears up, and their tails wagging - and if they're excited, they may be just about to bark. I'm sure you know the expression I mean.

You will very rarely get a dog to sit still for long enough to be drawn, so we have to have other methods.

Capturing An Image To Work From

Mostly we use photographs. I'm a photographer, as well, and when I photograph my dogs, I do it in the park when they are at their happiest. Use natural light, rather than flash, and get down to their level, so you don't end up getting the tops of their heads!

OK, so you get a photography tutorial thrown in as a bonus!

If your dog has his or her ears up when they are happy, say their name in an excited manner to get them to do this. One way to get them to hold still for just a few seconds (long enough to snap them) is to hold a ball in one hand (or stick). You can even control where their eyes are looking if you practise a lot. That's the beauty of digital photography - you don't waste money when you waste images.

Try to fill the frame as much as possible with your dog, so that it is big enough to produce a quality image. Most cameras have auto focus, so focussing should only be a problem if you're less than 16 inches away. In which case, you may need the macro setting on your camera; the tulip icon, for close ups.

Then when you've downloaded the photos, pick the best one, that you think would make a nice portrait. And that is your template. A handy tip is to reduce the brightness in your photo editing software. Most cameras come with at least some basic software. And also, make the image Black and White. Then you can print it out using black ink on cheap non photographic paper, to save your expensive paper and cartridges.

Before You Start Drawing

Look at your photograph for several minutes. Firstly, I want you to look at the shapes. Regardless of what shape you know your dog is, what shapes are in this particular photo?

Let's think of some standard shapes.

circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, rombus or diamond

That'll do to begin with.

Are there any shapes you can see in your photograph of your dog, that come anywhere close to any of these standard shapes listed?

Maybe you've spotted a moon crescent shape, or a moon crescent shape with a hammerhead attached!

Or maybe an unequal triangle with one of the corners curved upwards?

If you spend a few minutes, just studying these shapes, and forgetting exactly what it is a photograph of (sorry; who!), then you will be able to draw your faithful friend with relative ease.

Next, I'd like you to look at the highlights, and the shadows. Or the light areas, and the dark areas. Then very slightly draw the outline shape, but wait! - only where the outline is dark. Leave out the parts that are light.

I will show you what I mean with a video very shortly.

When you come to putting pencil or charcoal to paper, it's best to start lightly, and only in the dark areas. You can even shade very lightly the shadow areas, just to outline the shapes you noticed earlier.

We start off lightly because we can always add more on top, but can't take it away.

Comparing Shades

Next, we need to compare which areas are darker and lighter than others.

Let's imagine you had four different shades of grey paint. On your B&W printout of your photo, number the areas 1 - 5. You only imagine FOUR shades of paint because white does not need any!

The areas on your printout numbered 1 are darkest, and the areas numbered 5 are the lightest. They will probably be white, and have no ink on the paper. The darkest areas shouldn't quite be black if you lightened the image.

If they are black, then compare them with the original photo. Is there detail in the fur that you cannot see in the printout? You need to be able to see detail everywhere on your image.

It you cannot get a printout as good as the image on your computer screen, then copy from the screen.

I'll get some photos for next time, then I'll tell you the next step.

All the best

Gemma X