So you've always wanted to learn to draw your dog but didn't know where to start and how. Well, once you understand the basics of drawing a dog, it really is simple.
One thing that will help you tremendously when learning to draw dogs is to look at as many pictures of different breeds of dogs as you can. While looking at pictures of lovable dogs, try to look for basic shapes that you can translate into a canvas to form the dog. In drawing, basic shapes refer to square, circle, triangle, oblong and oval. These shapes are all you need when drawing dogs.
After you've looked at a fair amount of volume of dog pictures, a pattern will start to emerge, regardless of the breeds. You see that head and legs take the shapes of upside down triangles and oblongs emerge out of the body. These basic shapes of dogs are always constant and only thing that differs from breeds of dog is proportions of these shapes. Greyhounds would have much longer oblong as a body whereas a Dachshund s will have short triangles as legs.
First, start by drawing basic shapes to construct the outlines of a dog you are drawing. The basic shapes will change depending on what angle of the dog you are drawing so keep that in mind. Typically you start out by drawing a triangle for the head, oblong for the body and triangles again for the legs. You can use small oblongs or ovals where the ears and tails will be. Triangle works well for muzzles as well. These are general guidelines and you should experiment and try out different basic shapes that fit the description of the dog best.
After you've formed these basic shapes, next step is to start drawing lines on these shapes to make a more natural outlines. Don't worry about the detailed features such as the eyes, paws, and mouths yet. Just aim to make a light sketch of outlines of the dog. If you are satisfied with the basic outlines of the dog you are drawing, you can move onto adding details and making your dog much more realistic.
Start drawing in eyes to give life to the dog and add the remainders of the dog's features like the nose, mouth, paws, etc. Eyes often are as simple as drawing a small c that is downwards. One thing to keep throughout your drawing a dog is to consistency of the direction of the light coming in. This will help your shadings look realistic and natural.
To learn how to draw dogs require no more than a pencil, paper, an eraser, and little knowledge of how to deconstruct the dog into simple basic shapes and adding details to them. Keep practicing by drawing many different breeds of dogs and your skills on drawing dogs will improve drastically.
Quick Tip #1: Breaking It Down
Break the subject you are drawing into simple basic shapes such as square, oval, oblong, triangle, and circle. It doesn't matter whether you are drawing an apple or a dragon. If you break your model down into basic shapes and use them as an outline, you are greatly simplifying the process of drawing. |
Quick Tip #2: Outside In
Draw from outside in. What I mean by this is you should always draw the outlines of your models first then cramp all the details within those outlines. Drawing facial features such as eyes, nose and mouth before setting facial line is a huge no-no. |
Quick Tip #3: Upside-Down
One exercise that will improve your drawing skills is drawing an upside-down image. This may seem a bit weird at first but try it! It'll develop and improve your visual mode. |
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