How to Draw a Dog

My readers very often asked me to make a lesson on how to draw a dog, and I decided to prepare this simple and cute step-by-step tutorial.

On this page, in addition to this lesson, you will find several instructions for drawing a dog of various levels of difficulty, as well as free worksheets for each instruction.

Table of Contents

• Basic Information
• Steps on how to draw a dog
• Improve your art skills
• Additional materials
• Alternative methods
  • Method 1
  • Method 2
  • Method 3
  • Method 4
  • Method 5
  • Method 6
  • Method 7
• Conclusion

Basic Information on How to Draw a Dog

So, this drawing lesson will focus on how to draw a dog. As you can see, this dog drawing lesson will be as simple and accessible to everyone as all the lessons on my website.

What do you need to know before you begin the process of learning how to draw a dog?

First of all, you need to keep in mind the rules of proportions, symmetry and composition. This is important even when you are drawing very simple and cartoonish creatures.

Pay attention to how cartoonists draw. They, of course, draw taking into account all the rules existing in the fine arts, and that is why the characters, creatures and environments in cartoons look so convincing.

Also, when drawing a dog, always try not to focus too much on one detail. Try to look at the entire drawing of the dog as a whole. To do this, you can also move the drawing away from you from time to time to see all the errors and inaccuracies.

Steps on How to Draw a Dog

Improve Your Art Skills

The dog drawing lesson is complete and now it’s time to take your skills to the next level. To do this, you will need to complete several very simple, but at the same time very effective tasks.

• To add dimension to your drawing and teach how to create volume on a piece of paper, add shadows and highlights where needed. In this article about light and shadow, I tell you the most important things you need to know about these concepts.
• To learn how to draw animals in motion, try repeating the steps in this tutorial, but putting your dog in a different, more dynamic pose.
• You need to be able not only to repeat what you see before your eyes, but also to create images yourself. So try to draw a different breed of dog using the steps above.

Additional Materials

As you know, all my lessons contain completely free additional materials, which include:

• Drawing lesson
• Coloring page
• Tracing worksheet
• Grid drawing worksheet

These completely free additional materials can be downloaded, printed and used at any time, for example if you are learning to draw at home or in the classroom.

Alternative Methods of How to Draw a Dog

Now, dear reader, you have finally reached the additional methods. But why are they needed?

Of course, first of all, as a real artist, you must be able to depict a dog using a variety of methods. The more techniques you know for drawing the same subject, the wider your arsenal as an artist.

In addition, this is additional training, because by outlining the subject in a variety of ways and techniques, you learn to more deeply understand the essence of the subject. This in turn allows you not to feel constrained in the creative process.

Method 1: How to Draw an Easy Dog

Here is a small and cute dog that can be drawn in 9 simple steps. Here you can already see a slightly different series of steps. In addition, here you can see a slightly different style of drawing details, such as eyes and ears.

To outline the dog as in this example, first create the head and torso using light lines. Then sketch out the details of the dog’s face and limbs. Then erase all the auxiliary lines and color the sketch of the dog in your favorite colors.

Method 2: Funny Dog

Here the process of drawing a dog is divided into 11 steps. This allows you to go into greater detail, but at the same time it will take you a little longer to complete the entire process.

Unlike the first two instructions, you can see here a different way of drawing a dog. Here we do not outline the basic shapes, but begin to draw all the details of the dog line by line.

Method 3: How to Draw a Sitting Dog

Here we again return to the drawing method where the first step is to create the basic shapes, then gradually move on to the details.

Strong simplification of body shapes not only simplifies the drawing process, but also makes the dog sketch more cute and cartoonish.

Method 4: Cute Sitting Dog Drawing

In the previous example, the head and body shapes were drawn first, then the facial details were only added. Here you can see that after sketching out the head, the details of the face are drawn first, and then only the body and body parts.

Method 5: Small Dog Drawing Tutorial

This picture shows the cute cartoon puppy. He has a large head and short legs. These proportions give it a funny look. The puppy has a bright color. You can paint it in the same colors as in the sample, or you can get creative and choose the colors yourself. So let’s start drawing.

Method 6: Cute Dog Tutorial

The picture also shows a cartoon dog and it looks very cute. The dog is very fluffy and at the same time has smooth body contours. The dog has small ears and a short fluffy tail. You can easily sketch it, and drawing will give you pleasure.

Pay attention to the proportions of the body. The head is much larger than the body and the legs are very short. It is these proportions that give the dog a funny cartoon look.

Method 7: Realistic Dog Drawing Tutorial

This dog drawing lesson is a little more realistic than the others. Here you can see more realistic facial contours and expressions.

The method of drawing a dog here is slightly different from the previous ones. Here we first outline the face, then the torso, limbs and finally the facial features.

Conclusion on How to Draw a Dog

So, what did you learn from this dog drawing lesson?

First, of course, you learned how to sketch dogs. Actually, this was the most basic thing that I tried to teach you in this drawing lesson.

Secondly, if you were careful and tried to repeat everything that I describe, you learned to see the volume and convey it on a piece of paper.

And of course, you generally improved your drawing skills very well, especially if you completed all the additional tasks at the end of the drawing lesson.

If you easily completed the steps of this lesson and all the additional tasks, then be sure to go to the section called Animals on my website to learn how to portraynot only a dog, but also all the other fauna that exists on planet earth.