How To Draw A Dog: Easy, Step-by-Step Guide For Beginners [Plus, A Video Tutorial!]
Time to learn how to draw a man’s best friend!
Adorable as they are, dogs can be challenging to draw.
If you can’t get the shape of their head and the size of their body right, we get you. And we can help!
In our previous tutorials, we showed you how to draw a cat and how to draw a horse. Now, let’s expand your animal kingdom, or give your comic book character a new sidekick! We’ll show you how to draw a dog in a few, simple steps.
A Professional Artist Shows You How To Draw A Dog [Video]
To show you how to draw a dog step-by-step, we asked the lead BioWars artist, Gonçalo Lopes, to create a beginner-friendly video tutorial.
He takes you through the process of illustrating a dog from drawing the outline and the basic shapes of the dog’s body to finessing the details and shading the sketch.
Before you start, remember to take things slow; don’t worry about creating the perfect drawing on your first attempt. Be patient with yourself and practice as much as you can to master the art of drawing a dog.
While we’re on the subject of art, have you read the BioWars comic book? It describes the battle between the warriors of the immune system (BioWarriors) and microbes that jeopardize its safety. The clash isn’t fiction; it unfolds in every one of us daily, and the comic depicts the lengths to which the BioWarriors must go to protect us!
Now, let’s break the video tutorial into several steps so that you can explore them at your own pace!
Uncover the battle raging within. Read the BIOWARS comic book for free!
The Tools You’ll Need When Learning How To Draw A Dog Step By Step
When drawing a dog, we recommend you use the following tools:
- An H pencil: It’s the best choice when drawing the basic shape of the dog’s body.
- A 4B pencil: A softer lead is the best for shading.
- A kneaded eraser: This type of eraser is perfect for erasing sketch marks.
- Sketch paper: Make sure to use sketch paper with micro-perforations because that way you can easily apply corrections if need be.
Of course, if you prefer to use a drawing tablet when making art, go for it!
Check out how we drew the BIOWARS comic book protagonists!
How To Draw A Dog Step-By-Step
1. Draw The Base Of The Dog’s Body
Recommended tool: H pencil
When drawing a dog, many people tend to start from the head. However, if you’re a beginner, you might find it difficult to get the shape of the head right from the get-go.
That’s why we’re going to simplify the process, and that means no sketching the head yet!
Before you start, let’s decide on the angle from which we’re going to draw the dog.
We recommend you opt for the side angle like Gonçalo, since it’s the easiest to master for beginners.
Now, the first step to drawing a dog is to sketch the base for its body.
And that’s two circles, like this:
Time to learn how to draw a man’s best friend!
The dog we’re illustrating is turned to the left, so the circle on the left-hand side is bigger.
That’s where the dog’s chest will be.
The circle on the right should be smaller, but the tops of both circles should align.
2. Connect The Circles To Create The Torso
Recommended tool: H pencil
Let’s now connect the two circles you previously drew.
The line that connects their tops is where the dog’s back is.
By connecting the bottom one circle to another, you’ll get the dog’s belly:
Dog’s torso is now in place!
Just four simple lines later, you finished drawing the outline of the dog’s torso!
3. Draw The Neck
Recommended tool: H pencil
Once you finish drawing the dog’s torso, it’s time to illustrate its neck.
Draw a line from the dog’s chest upwards and then it lowers it toward the dog’s back.
When illustrating this step, pay attention to the length of the dog’s neck.
To ensure it isn’t too long or too short, observe the size of the dog’s torso — the neck should be slightly shorter, like this:
Time to add the neck to support a dog’s head!
4. Outline The Upper Arm And Upper Thigh
Recommended tool: H pencil
The outline of the dog’s upper arm resembles a loaf of bread. So, go ahead and draw one cute loaf and make it cover about two-thirds of the front circle.
As for the upper thigh, its outline should cover the better part of the back circle. Again, don’t bother drawing the perfect shape because we’ll show you how to tweak it later and make it look like a proper dog leg:
Let’s start drawing the dog’s legs!
5. Sketch The Head
Recommended tool: H pencil
Now is time to illustrate the dog’s forehead, muzzle, lower lip and its flews (which is just a sophisticated word for the dog’s upper lip!).
Again, Gonçalo drew these body parts using simple lines and shapes. The jaw is open because that’s almost the default state for every dog while they adoringly look at you (orrr the food).
The lower lip’s outline looks like a triangle with a soft apex.
When drawing the muzzle and the upper lip, sketch the forehead first and then extend that line towards the lips.
The drawing of the dog’s body is slowly coming together!
6. Add The Dog’s Ear
Recommended tool: H pencil
Since you’re drawing a dog from the side, only one of its ears is visible.
A lot of dogs have triangle-shaped ears, but of course, that varies depending on the breed and the dog’s stance. For example, if a dog is in a protective mode, it usually perks up its ears, so they’re pointier and more threatening than usual.
Gonçalo is drawing a happy, good pup, so the dog’s ear is hanging:
Let’s give this doggo an ear!
This ear isn’t exactly a triangle, but it does resemble one, with a rounded tip.
7. Outline The Forearm, Lower Thigh and Tail
Recommended tool: H pencil
Gonçalo drew the forearm and the lower slightly over the dog’s upper arm and upper thigh. That’s because the place where the two parts of the dog’s leg overlap is where its joint is, like this:
The outline of your dog drawing is almost complete!
Now, let’s give this doggy a tail!
Again, the shape and the size of a dog’s tail depend on the breed, but we opted for a slightly longer tail, Labrador style.
And that’s it, the basic outline for a dog drawing is now finished!
No, let’s add some details to the dog’s head.
Want to learn how to draw comic book characters? Follow this guide!
8. Outline The Dog’s Eyes, Nose And Teeth
Recommended tool: H pencil
To bring this good doggy to life, it’s time we added its eyes, nose and teeth.
The doggo now can see, smell and chew!
By the way, did you know that dogs have three eyelids? The extra eyelid is located underneath the two eyelids we all know are there, and it helps protect the dogs’ eyes and keep them moist.
When drawing an eye, sketch an oval shape first, but add more angle to the dog’s lower eyelid, to soften the eye’s sharpness.
As for the dog’s boop-y nose, you can sketch it as a circle.
You can also add a few teeth. For example, you can make the canines visible and several premolars and molars.
Oh, and don’t forget to draw the tongue!
Dogs almost always have theirs slightly out, and the one Gonçalo illustrated is no different!
9. Draw The Forearm And The Thighs On The Other Side
Recommended tool: H pencil
Now’s the time you added the other pair of dog’s legs.
Since we’re drawing a dog turned to the left, only a small section of its legs on the right shows.
Let’s add the dog’s legs on the other side!
The right forearm just slightly peaks in the back, while the left thigh is slightly more visible, as Gonçalo’s sketch illustrates.
10. Start Shading
Recommended tool: 4B pencil
You’re getting closer to finishing your drawing!
Since the outline is finished and all the details are in, it’s time to slightly shade the illustration and add some finishing touches to it.
Here comes the shading part!
You can grab a 4B pencil and apply pressure to it to make the outline of the dog’s body darker and more pronounced.
The shade is mostly falling on the dog’s right forearm and thigh, but don’t forget to also shade its chest and belly!
11. Add The Dog’s Hair And Erase Unnecessary Details
Recommended tools: 4B pencil and kneaded eraser
To make your drawing of a dog more realistic, how about you add hair to it?
Feel free to draw short zigzag lines across the dog’s belly, back and neck.
Then, add the pupil, the nostril and a few dotted lines to sketch the whiskers.
By the way, don’t forget to add two lines to illustrate the dog’s wrist and hock!
That way, its arms and legs will look real!
Also, draw the fingers on the doggy’s paws by sketching two short lines on each paw. Then, add even shorter and darker lines for the nails!
The final step to drawing a dog is to delete the elements we no longer need.
Take your kneaded eraser and slowly remove all sketch marks, so that the end result looks like this:
Your dog drawing is now finished!
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Finished Your Dog Drawing? Try These Next!
Since you successfully finished our guide on dog drawing, why stop now?
Since you like to draw, check out more of our art tutorials and continue practicing!
If drawing animals is your thing, these guides are for you:
- How to draw a fish
- How to draw a unicorn
- How to draw a penguin
- How to draw a dolphin
- How to draw a bat
- How to draw a butterfly
- How to draw a wolf
- How to draw a bunny
- How to draw a horse
- How to draw a cat
- How to draw a deer
- How to draw a shark
We have a lot more how-to’s in store, and you’ll find them all on our blog and YouTube channel!
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Recap On How To Draw A Dog Easy
We hope you had fun learning how to draw a dog.
As you could see, the important thing is to start small and draw the base of the dog’s body first.
That way, you’ll establish what its size should be at the very beginning, so you can then proportionately draw the rest of its body.
Did you enjoy our tutorial on how to draw a dog step by step? Let us know in the comments below!