I have a confession to make. I used to be terrible at drawing (yep, says the person who’s gonna teach you). But, in the last couple of years, I got a lot better. It’s definitely a nice skill to have, especially if you work with children (like I do). And just like any other skill, you have to start somewhere, so why not start with learning how to draw a dog face.
A few months ago I taught you how to draw a dog, but now we’re going to take it to the next level. I am going to teach you how to draw a realistic dog face. Now, I might not be able to teach you how to draw the pooch face from the featured picture above. However, I will try my best and I know you will too!
So, without further ado let’s dive right into and learn how to draw a dog face and impress all the kiddos (and adults) around you!
How to draw a dog face – Tutorial
Now, I want to start off by saying that learning how to draw takes time. So please don’t be too harsh on yourself or too self-critical. You might not like your first few drawings, but it is very important that you don’t give up.
Take it as a kid, they love everything they draw, and that’s exactly the approach we need when learning a new skill. Rest assured that as days go by you will be happier and happier with your drawings.
Also, if the written tutorial is too complicated for you, there is a video you can tend to.
I will try to keep it basic enough so that even beginners can keep up, but at the same time, it will be quite detailed because we do want a realistic drawing of a dog’s face. The tutorial we’re going to use today is by the amazing artist from letsdrawtoday.
What you’ll need
The first thing you’ll need is a picture of the dog’s head you want to draw. You can use your dog’s photo or find one online.
Materials needed:
- Sheet of drawing paper
- Sheet of folded paper to prevent smudging
- HB, 2B, and 6B graphite pencils
- Kneaded eraser
Now, if you’re a complete beginner you can simply use a piece of paper from your printer and any pencil and eraser. As you get better and improve your drawing you might want to upgrade the material you use.
Drawing a dog head
I will try to keep this as simple as possible and give you easy, short steps on how to draw a dog face.
Step one: We’re first drawing a circle. Please don’t put too much pressure on your pencil, keep it as light as possible. Then sketch a vertical and a horizontal line into the circle. These lines will be your guides on where the dog’s eyes are going to be, its nose, mouth, and so on.
Step two: Now we’re drawing the outlines of the eyes and the nose. For this step always follow your reference picture. Try to position the eyes exactly just like in your reference picture. Then according to your picture sketch the outline of the nose.
Give yourself time, pay attention to details, is the nose in the center of the face, or does it go a bit to the left side? Is one eye bigger than the other? These are all traits you need to pay attention to and draw according to them.
Step three: Now we draw the ears. How large are the dog’s ears? Does he or she have small or big ears? Do the ears go to its nose, or are they striking up? Again, pay attention to your reference picture. Then you’re going to draw the upper edge of the ear from the outer tip to the brow. Then, you’ll draw a flap connecting the ear to the head a little bit higher up.
You want both ears to align. So you’ll have to sketch a guideline from the first ear to locate the connection for the other ear.
Step four: After drawing the ears, we’re going to draw the nose. For this step, you should draw a vertical line separating the nose into two parts. After this, sketch the right nostril. For this, you want to pay attention to the size of the nostril as well as the shape. Then draw the left nostril. The same rules apply.
Step five: Our next step is drawing the mouth. For this step, you want to start branching out the mouth from the line below the nose. And you’ll draw a line until you are aligned with the inner corner of the eye. When you reach the eye start curving the bottom of the snout and repeat it on the other side.
Now you have a rough outline of the dog’s face. This is the easy part. Not we get to the difficult part, and who could better explain it than the master himself. I have learned through his tutorials too! All the detail work you can find on letsdrawtoday.