Easy Drawing of a Dog

Follow along as I do a cute Easy Drawing of a Dog, I have named this type of drawing as my 'Shadow Portraits' so if you see this name anywhere on this site, you will know what it means.

Dog Photo

I named them 'Shadow Portraits' because it makes me think half of the finished drawing of the dog is in shadow.

This is the little dog we will be drawing, it has such a cute face, looks a bit sad don't you think?

If you look closely you can see where the white markings are, those are what we we be drawing.

First things first - this dog photo is totally ours and we are dropping the copyright to this photo especially for you, download it from the link below and print it out so you can follow along with our tutorial.

Download me now!

Click the above link and print your project photo on A4 copy paper.

If you have any problems with the download, contact us and we will try to help.

We will only be using the photo to trace around the outside edge, the eyes, the ear and nose just to get them in place on the drawing paper, so the print doesn't need to be detailed, you may get away with printing it on draft.

Drawing Tools And Equipment

Black Pastel Matt Paper

White Pastel Pencil

Black Pastel Pencil

Blender

Tracing Paper

Black Mount

Black Frame

Putty Rubber

Just a few words before we get going.

When I am drawing a portrait, I always trace it, this is good for me and hopefully will be for you.

Why do we do this?  so it is easier to get the drawing in the centre of your paper.

There is nothing worse than drawing the portrait where you think it might go only to find out it is way off centre, so we trace it and get it right first time.


Black Pastel Paper Pad

The black paper I used is this one, Black Black, this is an A3 Pad and the paper is really lovely to use.

So, to do our drawing, I cut two at 8" x 10" from one sheet with a couple of small strips left over.


How To Trace an Easy Drawing of a Dog

Tracing Our Outline

Take your tracing paper and lay it on the photo.

Take your white pencil and draw around the outside half of the dog, don't draw over the whole head.

Draw over the eyes, nose and ear, that's all we need.

Turn the tracing over and lean on a piece of A4 paper, do not lean on your drawing paper as the next step will mark the paper.

Still using the white pencil, go over all the lines again on the other side of the paper.

Dog Tracing

Turn the tracing back over again and line it up on your black paper in the centre and using masking tape stick it down at the top, not at the bottom, this way you can lift up the bottom to see your drawing on the black paper to make sure you have it all in the right place.

Once you are ready to draw and your tracing is done, put your photo next to the paper with the top of the eyes level with the top of the eyes on your drawing.


Step 1 - Start Adding Fur 

Drawing the Dog Step 1

Start your drawing at the top left and always draw the dog hair in the direction that it lays.

Draw lines so very lightly and add to them as you go, mark these white areas in.

Don't worry too much at this stage, all markings can be changed and corrected.


Step 2 - Add Fur To Ears & Nose

Dog Drawing Step 2

Make some more marks around the nose area and start to work on the lovely long ears.

Looks really strange at this stage don't you think?


Step 3 - Work On The Eyes

Dog Drawing Step 3

Lets add some pencil marks to the eye, on the white of his eye.

You can see where I have gently blended some of the whites.


Step 4 - More Work On The Eyes

Dog Drawing Step 4

Add some white in the coloured part of the eye and blend it in which will darken it.

Using your blender, gently go over the whites of his eyes which will darken them slightly.

Draw with your black pencil across the top of the eye and around the coloured part of the eyeball.

Add more white markings under the eye, on the nose area and the top of his head.


Step 5 - Correcting Areas

Dog Drawing Step 5

Now look at your drawing and see if there are any markings that look like they don't fit in, like the one in the photo.

The little group of lines at the top look strange, so lets blend them and add some more lines until it fits in.


Step 6 - Blending

Dog Drawing Step 6

Use your blender to fill in blank areas, you can always add white markings on top of them.

Use your dark pencil to take away some of the white.

Keep tweaking until you like the result of what you have just done.


Step 7 - Work On The Ears

Dog Drawing Step 7

Start working on the ear.

Blend the white lines on the ear so the black is cloudy.

Draw lots of lovely curves using your white pencil, then using your black pencil draw thin black lines on the left side of the white lines, this will add a shadow like effect.


Step 8 - More Correcting & Filling

Dog Drawing Step 8

Stand back and have a look at your drawing, if you see anything that bothers you, change it by using the black pencil or using more white.

I can see the nose is far too wide, so grab a putty rubber and erase half of the left side of the drawing until you are comfortable with it.


Step 9 - Add Whiskers & Sign Your Name

Dog Drawing Step 9

Add some thin small lines to show the dog's whiskers, you can always adjust them if you want them thinner or shorter by using your black pencil and blending.

Ok if you are happy with your drawing, sign it and I always put the year in figures underneath.



Step 10 - Easy Drawing of a Dog Finished

Shadow Dog Drawing in Pastel Pencils by JanDShadow Dog Drawing in Pastel Pencils by JanD

Ok, stand back and look at your drawing from a distance, it looks good right.

Your drawing will look better than all the photos on this page due to the black paper not looking as black as it should be, but in real time it looks a lot better.

Well done for reaching the end of this little tutorial, I hope you are pleased with your drawing.


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