How To Draw Dogs

Dogs are such lovable creatures and it is their extremely friendly nature coupled with incomparable loyalty that makes these animals a favorite household pet. Knowing how to draw a dog isn't that big a challenge really, it involves basic steps to get us started and over time these steps can be improved to make it so much more realistic.

Step One: Orienting Oneself with the Features

Take a picture of a dog face front and sketch a vertical line to divide the dog's face in half, a vertical line that cuts across the eyes, two vertical lines to represent the top and bottom of the nose, and a vertical line each to represent the top of his head and his mouth. Learning how to draw a dog begins with this basic sketch so that we know where to place the eyes, nose and mouth. This will also help us make sure that the dog's features are perfectly aligned.

Step Two: Draw a Rough Sketch

Now that we have the basic outline as the preliminary step in knowing how to draw a dog, we will now use curved lines that are lightly drawn to represent the animal's eyes, muzzle, ears, nose and fur. The dogs eyes are drawn in circles with the iris shaded in and use curved lines to outline the shape of the muzzle. Draw two lines from the top of the semicircular part of the muzzle down to the nose, and lightly sketch the ears. Note the changes in shading and plane and mark distinct boundaries especially around the eyes.

Step Three: Look Beyond the Outline

The third step in learning how to draw a dog requires us to look beyond the outline and to sketch the bumps and fur. Start sketching the body and if one's photo of a dog is that of the animal sitting down, start sketching the shape of his body. The key to making it a realistic drawing is to look closely, think and draw the lines with utmost confidence.

Step Four: Indicate the Shadows and Fill in the Colors

In learning how to draw especially how to draw a dog, there's always the element of lighting. If the light is coming from the top right, one should make sure that the part of the animal on the bottom left should be colored in a darker tone. It's a good idea to place emphasis on the dog's eyes and shade in shadows.