How to draw to dog

How to Draw a Dog – Step by Step Drawing Tutorial for a Cute Cartoon Dog

It’s dog drawing time! Let’s learn how to draw a dog together with this easy to follow step by step tutorial. Simple, quick and fun!

In only six easy to follow steps you will learn how to draw a cute dog sitting down. If your kids are into cartooning they will love this one for sure.

*this post contains affiliate links*

We love how our collection of easy drawing tutorials keeps on growing. We’ve learned to draw many different animals and objects together already and I am really happy to share this puppy drawing tutorial with you.

This one is designed to be super simple so it’s easy both for kids and grown ups who want to draw a an adorable cartoon style dog.

As with our other tutorials of this type, you can grab the printable with all the steps at the end of it, so you can practice anywhere you want to (or use it in the classroom).

How to Draw a Dog – Step by Step Directed Drawing

Dog Drawing Instructions

Step 1

Start by drawing an oval shape. You can make a perfect oval or make it to be a bit more “boxy”. Nothing wrong if it’s more round. This will be the snout.

Step 2

Continue by making a inverted U shape above the oval you have previously drawn. This will be the head. Also make the nose. You can make it round or more of a triangle shape.

Step 3

Draw the ears. We think droopy or folded ears are the best, but you could also draw pointy, button or any other shape you want.

Step 4

Lets finish up the dog face. Draw two spots for eyes and two arches above the eyes for the eyebrows. Draw a straight line from the snout and a wavy line for the mouth.

Also make the front pair of legs.

Step 5

Time to make the body!

Step 6

Last but not lest, draw a pair of hind legs and a wiggly tail.

Congratulations you have learned how to draw a dog.

Color

Now that you have finished your dog drawing it’s time to color it.

Get the Dog Directed Drawing Printables Here

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How to Draw Animals: Dogs and Wolves, and Their Anatomy

A dog is a man’s best friend. Dogs come in every size and shape, so everyone can find their favorite breed. If you want to learn what dogs are made of and how to draw them—and also their ancestor, the wolf—you’re in the right place.

This complete dog drawing tutorial will show you how to draw a dog step by step. It can also serve as inspiration if you’re looking for dog logo ideas for your brand or business.

From cute dog logo ideas to modern dog logo designs, Placeit is the place to go if you need to create a logo in minutes. The Placeit logo maker helps you make a dog logo design right in your browser.

Scroll down after this tutorial to find a selection of top dog logo ideas from the Placeit logo maker! And for a detailed wolf anatomy drawing tutorial, check out this resource:

What You’ll Learn in this Dog Drawing Tutorial

It’s often useful to start by gathering reference images, so feel free to browse Envato Market for photos of dogs and wolves.

1. How to Draw a Dog’s Skeletal Structure

Step 1

Let’s start with the base: a dog skeleton drawing. To create a believable pose, you need to understand the skeletal structure of a dog first. The problem is there are so many breeds of dog, and they differ a lot. We can solve it by going back to the past, to their common ancestor: the wolf.

Step 2

We can now break up the complicated dog skeleton drawing into something simpler and easier to remember.

Step 3

Once we’ve got the structure, we can create any breed from it, and a wolf’s anatomy isn’t different. Before you start building your pose, though, you should first take a look at a photo reference. This is because breeds have their unique features, and you need to spot them before building a pose. Of course, it doesn’t mean you’ll need references all the time. You just need to understand the differences between your breed and a wolf, and you’re set!

Step 4

If you want to draw a puppy, just make the head bigger. If it’s a puppy of a large breed, it will also have unusually large paws.

Step 5

The skeleton itself isn’t the only thing that makes the pose. Joints are very important for the animal to move, so you need to understand them before drawing something other than a rigid side view. Dogs are really similar to cats here, so I suggest you take a look at the first step of my cat tutorial to find out more.

When you’re sure you’ve learned it, you can draw your pose. This is the base of wolf anatomy drawing and dog anatomy drawing.

2. How to Draw a Dog’s Muscle Structure

Step 1

To add a body to your dog, you can use simplified muscle masses. And this also applies to wolf anatomy. They’re also all you need if you’re drawing a long-haired dog like the Afghan Hound—nobody will see any muscles under all that hair!

Step 2

In my picture, I’ve added simplified muscle masses for both dogs.

Step 3

If you want to draw a short-haired dog, there’s more to learn. More detailed muscles also come in handy when you need to emphasize the dog’s strength.

Step 4

My little dog family is now very muscular!

3. How to Draw a Dog’s Paws

Step 1

Another key part of both dog and wolf anatomy drawing is the paws. Although they look very similar, hind and forepaws aren’t the same, just like our hands and feet. «Hands», or the forepaws, have a thumb, called a dewclaw, and a carpal ball on the «feet», or the hind paws, called a lack.

Step 2

Dogs, just like cats, walk on their fingertips. They don’t have actual claws—they’re more like nails, and they’re not used for fighting.

Step 3

To draw a dog paw, start with four lines bent as shown below.

Step 4

Step 5

You can now draw the contours of the paw and add the nails. Don’t make them pointy and sharp. They wear down all the time, as they can’t be retracted like a cat’s claw.

Step 6

Cover the paw with fur, leaving the pads visible.

Step 7

Here’s how to create a paw from the front:

Step 8

My dogs now have cute paws!

4. How to Draw a Dog/Wolf Head Proportionally

Step 1

Now for the next lesson in dog anatomy for artists: the head. We’ll start with a wolf head and work from there for different breeds. Draw a circle first.

Step 2

Step 3

Draw a symbolic nose at the bottom of the muzzle.

Step 4

Sketch the contours of the skull.

Step 5

Add ears on the top of the head.

Step 6

Then add the forehead.

Step 7

Now you can place the eyes between the forehead lines. The central line of the circle should cross them right through the middle.

Step 8

If you want to draw a puppy, you need to change this scheme a bit:

Step 9

If you want to draw the profile of a dog’s head, you’ll need different guide lines. Start with a circle again and add a muzzle.

Step 10

Attach the nose on the tip of the muzzle.

Step 11

Step 12

Use additional guide lines to find a place for the eye.

Step 13

But what about all the breeds? Most of them aren’t really similar to a wolf. Well, that’s not a problem—just modify the size of the elements of the head, adjust the space between eyes, and so on.

When looking at a reference, locate the big circle and its central lines, and check all the proportions. Most likely it’ll all stay in your mind after your first try!

Step 14

I added heads to my dogs.

5. How to Draw a Dog/Wolf Eye

Step 1

Eyes are another key part of dog anatomy for artists. Let’s draw an oval first.

Step 2

Add the rims of the eyelids.

Step 3

Add the corners of the eye.

Step 4

Draw the pupil. Remember, its size depends on the amount of light.

Step 5

Draw light areas around the eye. Think of them as eyelids and eyebrows.

Step 6

To create depth, add a shadow under the upper eyelid (it’s placed forward), between both light areas, and inside the eye itself.

Step 7

To draw an eye in profile, start with a teardrop rather than an oval. The rest is pretty much the same.

You know how to draw a wolf eye now. The main difference between the wolf and dog eye is the eyelids’ rims aren’t always so dark as dogs, and their eyes are also rounder (so a bit of the eyeball white can be visible). The most popular color for dogs’ eyes is brown, while wolves have mostly amber/yellow eyes (and never blue!).

6. How to Draw a Dog’s Nose

Step 1

Next in this dog anatomy drawing tutorial: the nose. It’s pretty easy! Start with an anchor, then draw a fin at the top of it. Now just close the shape and draw the nostrils shaped like commas. It’s done!

Step 2

If you want to draw a nose in profile, draw only a half of the anchor and the fin, and attach a ball to it.

7. How to Draw a Dog’s Ears

Step 1

The ancestor of dogs, the wolf, has pointed ears, and they still can be found in many breeds. They’re quite easy to draw. The hairier the dog, the fluffier the ears (compare a German Shepherd and Alaskan Malamute).

Step 2

So, where do floppy ears come from? All puppies are born with floppy ears, as the structures supporting them aren’t developed yet. Dogs have been bred to become more friendly and sociable than wolves, so humans wanted them to have a wolf-puppy-like personality. As a result, we’ve got adult dogs with puppy features—playful, curious, immature, and sometimes, with soft, floppy ears.

When drawing floppy ears, just keep in mind their origin. Start with a rigid base and then break it. Also, remember that in the breeding process, some floppy ears become much longer and wider, losing their typical triangular shape. See, for example, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.

8. How to Draw a Dog’s Mouth

Step 1

Dogs use their mouths to prevent overheating, so panting is pretty normal for them. Also, drawing a dog with an open mouth will help you create a cute, natural smile. So look at the picture below and remember the layers. It’s important when creating a realistic dog mouth!

Step 2

I added all the elements of the dog’s face.

9. How to Draw a Dog’s Fur

If you want to learn about drawing fur, check out my tutorial all about drawing fur. Here I’ll just show you how important fur is for the silhouette. Notice that the dogs below are the same size. Always start with a pose and simplified muscles before drawing the fur to avoid mistakes. Also, the shorter the fur, the more attention you’ll need to pay to the muscles.

Woof! Your Dog Drawing Is Done!

Thanks for staying with me and learning how to draw dogs and wolves. There are so many breeds to cover, but with some basic knowledge of their structure, you can draw any dog you wish! Until next time, happy drawing.

5 Top Dog Logo Designs From the Placeit Logo Maker

You know how to draw a dog and everything about the dog anatomy drawing process. Now, if you need dog logo ideas, we’ve got you covered as well.

You don’t need design software to create professional dog logos. You can make amazing dog logo designs from your browser, using the Placeit logo maker.

Just create an account, choose the dog logo you like the most, customize it in minutes, and download it. That’s it. Here’s a selection of dog logo ideas to get you started:

1. Cute Dog Logo Brand for Pet Accessories

Opening a pet shop? You need a cute dog logo brand template like this. This dog logo features a cute drawing of a dog holding a frisbee and a clear brand name. Easily customize the text and colors in the Placeit logo maker.

2. Simple and Cute Dog Walking Logo

Promote your walking dog services with this cute dog walking logo. If you don’t like this dog drawing icon, you can choose from other dog icons in the logo maker. You can play with the text and colors until you like the result.

3. Dog Logo Design for a Children’s Boutique

Dog drawings are a popular idea for children’s clothing. This cute dog logo brand template is a great option if you have a business like that. It’s entirely customizable in minutes.

4. Modern Dog Logo Design for a Clothing Line

On the other hand, maybe you’re looking for more modern and fresh dog logo ideas. This cool dog logo could work perfectly for a streetwear brand, for example.

5. Red Dog Logo for Pet Accessories

If you like simple dog logos, you’ll like this red dog logo for pet accessories. It features a realistic dog’s head on a red background. Customize the text to reflect your brand and create a cool red dog logo!

Discover More Drawing and Logo Design Inspiration

I hope you’ve enjoyed this thorough dog anatomy drawing tutorial, complete with awesome dog logo ideas. Before you leave, explore more drawing and logo resources from Envato Tuts+:

Editorial Note: This post has been updated with contributions from Maria Villanueva. Maria is the Associate Editor of the Tuts+ Design channel.

SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

11 Easy Steps for How to Draw a Dog

Dogs are cute! Who hasn’t taken a moment to doodle their favorite pooch on the side of their paper before? But like many animals, dogs can be hard to draw well, especially from memory.

If you are trying to up your drawing skill, this guide for how to draw a dog is for you! We’ll cover all the basics of learning to draw animals and dogs in particular, and walk you through drawing a dog step by step.

4 General Tips for Drawing Dogs and Animals

Drawing animals can be really challenging! Living creatures are often harder to draw than static objects, as you want your animal drawings to be full of life. Here’s a few tips to get you started!

Use References

It might feel like cheating to use a reference, but it’s a-OK. Professional artists use references all the time to help their artwork feel more realistic. A reference photo will help you see what a dog looks like without trying to make a real dog sit still the entire time you’re working.

There are so many kinds of dogs that it’s practically impossible to remember how to draw all of them. Even if they have similar skeletal structures (which isn’t always the case), their fur texture, eye shape, and size can vary pretty widely. You can take your own reference photos or use ones you find in books or online to help you get the details right.

Study Anatomy

You don’t have to go to veterinary school, but spending some time looking at animal anatomy will help you better understand how an animal sits, stands, and moves.

Pay particular attention to the location of the spine, as this will help you figure out how the animal is shaped. When you know that, you’ll have an easier time positioning the head, legs, and tails appropriately.

You can also get a better handle on their muscle structure, which is particularly helpful when drawing animals with short fur and pronounced muscles. Though you don’t need to replicate every detail in your drawing, understanding how an animal’s body works can make your drawings feel more lifelike, even in a cartoony style.

Start With Simple Shapes

Even complicated drawings are based on simple shapes. A light underdrawing that consists primarily of primary shapes is a great foundation for more detailed drawings; you can build on the basic shapes to help your drawing feel lifelike.

Look at an animal’s anatomy and imagine it as several connected shapes. You might see a large oval for the ribcage and a rounded rectangle for the head, or an almost kidney bean-like shape for an animal’s leg.

These are just guidelines—they’ll need refinement to really work in a drawing, but using these shapes to guide your work will help you stay on track as you’re drawing.

Draw Lightly

It takes time and effort to draw well. Start off with light pencil for sketching, and don’t be afraid to erase and try again.

As you progress through the drawing process, you can erase your guidelines and draw in heavier pencil. This helps keep you on target and gets rid of the unnecessary lines.

When you’re ready, you can go back over your drawing in ink or marker, and erase the pencil marks entirely. That ensures that only the lines you want are visible!

This also works for digital illustration. Using layers in illustration programs, you can have underdrawings and layers of increasing detail, which can be turned off when you no longer need them.

With practice, you’ll soon be doing way better than this.

How to Draw a Dog: The Simple Method

Even when you’re drawing a simple dog, it’s smart to have an understanding of basic dog anatomy. It might sound silly or unnecessary, but even cartoony drawings need to be based in reality to look right. As mentioned above, take some time to look at dog anatomy and learn the basic shapes that make a dog up to help you make even a simple dog look great!

Because there are so many kinds of dogs, we can’t provide a tutorial for how to draw all of them. Instead, here’s a simple guide for drawing a sitting dog that can be adjusted depending on what kind of dog you’re drawing.

A modest beginning.

Sketch the Muzzle

All you need is an oval to start with. Don’t get caught up in making it look perfect—you can make adjustments to it later.

Also, don’t worry about details. Just get a circle down and we’ll add to it later, once we have the body done.

It doesn’t look like much yet.

Draw the Head

Sketch the shape of the head around the oval you’ve drawn for the muzzle. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfect, because you can change it at any time.

You can change the shape depending on how you want your dog to look. Some dogs have very round heads while others are more angular, but having the head oval in place gives you a structure to work around.

Looking a bit more like a dog now.

Add a Nose

Dog noses are unusually shaped. They actually look a bit like mushroom slices, with an exaggerated flare at the bottom.

You can start by drawing a sort of rounded triangle, then adding the nostrils to flesh it out. A simple nose or a detailed one can be equally effective depending on how detailed your drawing is.

Making progress.

Add Ears

A dog’s ears can be a great source of expression! Depending on what kind of dog you’re drawing, the ears may be floppy, upright, or even cropped.

Start with the basic shape and tweak it from there.

Eyes make a big difference.

Add Eyes

Let’s keep it simple here—eyes are tricky to draw well! Two little ovals will do the job for now, so if we’re doing a simple cartoony drawing, we don’t have to get very detailed.

You can add eyebrows to give your dog more of an expression. Dogs don’t have eyebrows exactly like we do, but some have eyebrow-like markings just above their eyes. Feel free to use your imagination!

Okay, it’s definitely a dog now.

Add a Mouth

Dogs have two rounded shapes beneath their noses that often turn upwards, making it look as though they’re smiling. You can draw these shapes as rounded ovals to make the dog look happier, or make them more angular and pointed downward to make your dog look more serious.

In combination with the ears, the dog’s mouth is the best way to convey emotion.

The egg-shaped body feels like a bit of a step backward.

Add a Body

The body looks a bit like an egg, with the top hidden behind the dog’s head. Again, draw it lightly and go over it later to add more detail.

These legs leave something to be desired.

Add Front Legs

Draw two straight lines and add a little oval at the end for the paw. You can embellish these with spots or fur, but the basic shape is just two sets of two lines with a little oval at the end.

I wanted a husky-like tail, even if it looks a bit like a banana right now.

Add a Tail

What kind of tail a dog has depends on its breed. You can draw a skinny tail, a fluffy one, or no tail at all depending on what kind of dog you’re drawing.

These legs are a little on the abstract side.

Add Back Legs

Back legs are a little more difficult to visualize, but think back to the anatomy of a dog. The dog’s thigh is kind of like a tilted oval, and the foot and lower leg are like an elongated, squashed oval.

All these are just sketch lines, so if they look a little funky now, that’s okay—you can fix them up with detail later on.

Details and ink definitely help the doggy appearance.

Add Details and Finish Up

Now that you have the basic structure of your dog, you can touch things up with detail, erase all your sketch lines, and outline in ink.

Some things to add to make your dog look more lifelike and cute are color, fur textures, and whiskers. Take a look at real dogs and see the features that make them unique, then make adjustments to yours to make it look special, too!

How to Draw a Dog: The Detailed Method

Drawing a detailed dog is a lot like drawing a simple dog, though it will likely take you more time and effort. Again, understand the simple shapes that make up a dog. Look at skeletal structure and muscle groups to help you understand what they look like under all that fur, as those are the features you’ll start with before you add more detail.

First and foremost: start simple. It’s easier to draw a familiar yellow lab than it is to draw something more complex, like a Puli. That goes for shapes, too. Underdrawing is even more important when drawing detailed dogs than it is for simple dogs, even if you feel like you’re erasing most of the work.

And erasing is a big part of drawing detailed dogs. You probably won’t get it perfect the first time, but that’s okay! The dog up above was my first attempt, and if I continued to practice I would get better. Erase and try again and again. You might not notice your skill improving, but every drawing you do brings you closer to the artist you want to be.

This beautiful dog is going to be our reference photo.

Start With a Reference

You can use your own photo or one you find online, but add your own embellishments and tweaks to really make it your own. You don’t need to trace, though you can if you’re just starting out and want to get a better grasp on what dogs look like. It’s not wrong to learn by tracing, but it’s a good idea to use those drawings as practice unless you took the photo yourself.

Many artists take their own reference photos. If you can’t, you can use one you find online, but aim to make your drawing substantially different from the reference if you plan to use the picture for something other than practice.

Starting with a reference photo lets you work off of an existing image, which can help your drawing be more accurate. Use what you know of skeletal structure so you can better draw the shapes that make up a dog.

Not very impressive.

Outline Shapes

Naturally, dogs are made up of many complex parts. But when you’re starting your drawing, just focus on the basics—the shapes that make up the basic form of a dog. If you were to just imagine a dog’s silhouette, you might see a rounded rectangle for the head, a large oval of the chest, and another oval for the hindquarters.

Start with a line to keep the body parts aligned. The line can be straight or slightly curved, depending on what position you’ll draw the dog in. Then draw the basic shapes at their appropriate places, centering them on the line.

After some redrawing, we have the basic form of the dog in our photo.

Outline Shapes for Larger Features

Now that you have the basic dog shape down, you can add just a little more detail. Focus on drawing the larger features of a dog—the snout, feet, and legs. Again, draw shapes rather than detailed features, as you’ll add all the little stuff later.

Fill in the places where those features meet the body, and connect the larger sections of the body together. You’ll flesh all of this out later on; for now, you just want it to look like the basic silhouette of a dog, not something instantly recognizable as whatever breed of dog you’re trying to draw.

This dog is more muscular than furry, so I focused on the muscles.

Add Body Contour

Now’s the time to start getting into detail, mostly in the body. Add some rough structure to the body, such as muscle definition for short-haired dogs or fur outlines for long-haired dogs. Look at where the breed is thicker or thinner, and emphasize those areas of the body.

Look at where fur gathers on images of the type of dog you’re drawing, and also where muscles are more visible. Those are the areas to emphasize here, but, as always, don’t get too invested in details yet.

Also take a moment to draw the legs and feet in more detail. Add toes and fur, if necessary, so you have a clearer picture of what the final dog will look like.

Hey, that’s a dog!

Erase Unnecessary Lines

Get rid of the guidelines you used, as from now on you’ll mostly be fleshing out details and shading. You’ve spent enough time on the basic shape, adding some fur and details, that you no longer need your initial shapes and guidelines.

Now’s the time to add basic outlines for the dog’s ears, eyes, nose, and snout details. Get their placement and shape right, and be sure they look similar to those in your reference photo.

This will probably take some time. Don’t get frustrated if you have to draw and redraw these features several times—these are details that are important to get right, but that can be quite tricky to execute well. You might have to do a lot of practice, but it’ll be worth it in the end!

Add Fur Texture

Now you can add fur and fluff to the details you added in the last step. Add a little fur to the ears or little tufts on the legs.

If you’re not drawing a particularly shaggy dog, add more muscle definition. Use shading to emphasize where the dog’s muscles would show, and sketch out areas where the dog is more muscular to make it look more realistic.

Just as you’ve done throughout the drawing, start with general details before you get into the smaller ones. Go for general fur shape, then add fuzzier patches. Get the general body shape and muscle structure done, then add muscles that are in use given your reference photo’s pose.

It’s not perfect, but that just means it’s time to practice!

Finishing Touches

You’re almost done! Take some time to add additional details to things like the dog’s nose and eyes, and add teeth or a tongue depending on whether the dog’s mouth is open.

You can also add spots or other color patterns if your dog has them. Just shading will accomplish this, or you can use full color to give your picture even more pop.

However, it is possible to get too detailed. Some artists draw intensely detailed images while others are a little more sparing. Both are great art styles, so don’t feel like adding tons of detail is the only way to make your art look realistic and interesting!

Additional Tips for Drawing Dogs

Once you’ve got the basics down, drawing a dog is a matter of practice. Keep trying to improve, even when it feels like your skill isn’t getting better.

But if you need some additional help in drawing certain parts or certain kinds of dogs, consider these tips!

How To Draw a Dog’s Face

Drawing a dog’s face can be particularly tricky—we want our drawing’s faces to be as expressive and cute as real dogs. Understanding what a dog’s skull is like is a great first step, as you’ll be able to see what parts move, what parts don’t, and where important features like the ears and eyes sit.

Outline the basic shape before adding features. You can block them in using lines to be sure that they’re all aligned properly.

As with the rest of the dog, start with the broader details and then fill in the specific ones. Start with the shape of the eyes, for example, and refine them until they look right. Then add the iris and pupils as well as surrounding fur. You can always make changes, but it’s easier to start with the larger details and fill in the specific ones than end up having the erase everything because you can’t get the shape to look right after you’ve drawn the details.

How to Draw a Puppy

Puppies are a lot more than miniature dogs—they have different features, which means there are special considerations to keep in mind when drawing them as opposed to adult dogs.

For one, puppies often have proportionally larger paws than adult dogs. Drawing the paws a bit larger is a good way to clue people into the fact that you’re drawing a puppy!

Puppies are also generally a little chubbier, with more rounded bodies. Though some might be a little muscular, for the most part puppies will be more rounded—combined with other puppy features like larger paws, a rounded body can make a dog look younger.

Some breeds also have gangly legs, especially as they begin to grow into adolescents. A few adult breeds, such as borzois and greyhounds, may look gangly as adults, but many dogs get that same look as they’re growing up. It’s okay to make your puppy drawings look a little awkward—it’s true to life!

Another good detail for puppies is that their eyes often look proportionally larger than those of adult dogs. This is a common feature of baby animals, and it’s part of the reason that people love them so much. A large head, round eyes, and smaller nose and mouth remind us a lot of human babies, so use those features to make your puppy drawings look even cuter!

What’s Next?

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different styles when drawing dogs. Check out this guide to how to do contour line art and try out a whole new art direction!

Not sure what to draw now that you’ve mastered dogs? This list of 100 different drawing ideas is sure to help.

Drawing is a great hobby, but it can also make you money. Check out this list of art scholarships to help you turn your skills into cash for college!

Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article!

Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor’s in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.

How to Draw a Dalmatian Dog

In this Dalmatian drawing tutorial, I’ll show you how to draw a Dalmatian dog with ink liners. Creating a black and white dog drawing with high contrast may seem challenging. This step-by-step process will give you an example of how to use the basic principles of drawing to create impressive ink artworks.

We will also explore effective methods of depicting hair and making the texture look credible.

This is a stylized and easy drawing of a dog. If you’re looking for how to draw a dog step by step, which is more anatomically correct, we have you covered as well:

What You’ll Learn in This Dalmatian Drawing Tutorial

What You’ll Need

A pencil (I recommend using an HB type)

1. How to Draw a Pencil Sketch of a Dog

Step 1

Drawing easy dogs shouldn’t be a problem if you follow these steps! First, we need to construct the dog’s head and think over the details. I draw an axis line and mark the upper and lower borders of the head.

Having an axis line is very useful because you can use it for checking the symmetry in your drawing.

Step 2

I mark the shapes of the eyes; they are located slightly above the center of the head. I also outline the general shape of the dog’s nose and mark the sides of the head.

Step 3

I outline the jaw and the bottom part of the snout.

Step 4

Next up on this easy drawing of a dog, the nostrils.

Step 5

I add the ears. To make this process easier, I imagine that I’m drawing two pieces of thick cloth at the sides of the dog’s head.

Step 6

I mark the neck of the Dalmatian drawing with two vertical lines.

Step 7

Wondering how to draw Dalmatian spots? I create shaded areas of the black spots. I draw them anywhere I feel appropriate, accentuating the eyes and ears. A small spot in a shape of a heart on the forehead looks like a lovely addition.

Step 8

I also mark the small highlights in the dog’s eyes.

2. How to Draw Dog Hair

Step 1

Next up in this sketch of a dog: the hair. To create an illusion of hair, I usually use hatching. The lines can be long or short; sometimes they even turn into dots.

Step 2

I create some simple hatching; the lines slightly differ from each other. It is a basic pattern for the light-colored hair.

Step 3

Another way of drawing hair is by creating layers of hatching. It is also a great method for darkening and increasing the value.

Additional lines may be located between the existing ones and repeat their direction, or they may cross the base hatches at an angle.

Step 4

It is possible to add rounded lines to create an illusion of volume. This method of drawing is also known as contour hatching because it repeats the real shape of an object.

3. How to Draw a Realistic Dog With Ink Liners

Step 1

The black and white dog drawing is coming to shape. Next up, I make a clean copy of my drawing with a pencil, transferring the main contours onto a blank sheet of paper.

You can use a light table or just a window during the day to perform this step. Try to create light lines so that they won’t interfere with your future ink drawing.

Step 2

With the 0.3 ink liner, I outline the contours.

I recommend drawing interrupted lines; they seem more organic and allow you to achieve an illusion of diversity.

Step 3

I use the 0.1 liner to mark the black spots. This is another important step in learning how to draw Dalmatian spots. I imagine that the hatches are going from the center of the snout to the periphery.

Step 4

With the 0.05 ink liner, I add thin hatches to create shady areas.

Step 5

I use the 0.05 liner to create the texture of the dog’s nose, drawing small, rounded lines.

Step 6

With the 0.05 liner, I apply the contour hatching to the eyes, accentuating their volume.

Step 7

I use the 0.3 ink liner to darken the black spots. Wider lines seem to be darker than thin ones, so this tool is perfect for creating black areas.

Please note that the lines are going beyond the contours that we outlined previously.

Step 8

I draw the white hair on the ears and neck with the 0.05 liner.

Step 9

I continue creating an illusion of light-colored hair on the dog’s snout, using the 0.05 liner.

Step 10

With the 0.05 ink liner, I work on the central part of the snout, the nose, and the forehead.

Step 11

I add dots to the nose, using the 0.3 ink liner. The upper part of the nose catches the light, so I add only one layer of dots there.

Step 12

With the 0.1 liner, I draw rounded hatches on the sides of the nose, emphasizing its volume.

Step 13

I use the 0.1 ink liner to apply cross-hatching to the eyes, marking the pupils.

Step 14

With the 0.1 ink liner, I work on the eyes and expand the hatching there. Please be sure to leave small areas of blank paper for the highlights.

Step 15

With the 0.05 ink liner, I accent the shady areas, adding groups of thin hatches.

While working on the light-colored textures like hair, it is necessary to be accurate with the value in the drawing and increase it gradually.

Step 16

The drawing needs higher contrast, so I use the 0.3 ink liner to accent the black spots.

Step 17

With the 0.3 liner, I add another layer of hatching to the darkest areas of the eyes.

Step 18

I use the 0.3 ink liner to model the eyelids. I darken the outer corners of the eyes and leave only a thin line of blank paper on the upper eyelid.

Step 19

I add hatching to the nose, the jaw, and all the shady areas, using the 0.1 liner.

Step 20

As final touches, I add more cross-hatching to the sides of the head with the 0.05 liner.

Your Dalmatian Drawing Is Complete

Congratulations! I hope you enjoyed both the process and the result. Now you know that drawing easy dogs is just a matter of following the process, step by step.

Understanding the principles of conveying the light-and-shadow relationships is the core of successful drawing with ink. If you add it to the skill of observation, you will be able to depict anything you wish.

Good luck on your creative journey!

Discover More Drawing Tutorials

If you liked completing this easy drawing of a dog, you might also enjoy these resources:

How To Draw A Dog

10 Amazing (and Easy!) Tutorials

Introduction

I love dogs, especially Golden Retrievers. To me, dogs represent happiness. Of course, all that happiness almost drowned away when I realized how difficult it was to draw a dog. I, however, am not the kind of person to give up. When I understood that drawing dogs was going to be hard, I immediately got to work, and studied a few dog drawing tutorials, which turned out to be of immense help to me. I then compiled those tutorials in a list, so that others can be benefitted as well, without having to dig through thousands of dog drawing tutorials that are online.

To draw a dog, you first need to start with its face. It can be a cute or aggressive look, depending on the breed. Next, you add details to its head, while putting special emphasis on its ears. Afterwards, you can draw the rest of the body, and then paint it as you desire. While painting, you need to make sure that you’re applying the right texture, if you want to make the dog’s fur pop out, and give the artwork a realistic vibe.

Drawing a Cute Puppy

The Golden Retriever is one of the most popular and well know dog breeds in the world. They’re known for their lustrous coat of golden fur, which gives the breed its name. In this drawing tutorial, you’ll learn how to draw a cute little Golden Retriever puppy in a few simple steps. This tutorial is ideal for people of all ages, especially kids, who’ll enjoy working on a drawing that’s this cute and cuddly.