[Music]
hello Wacom family
and welcome to a new step-by-step sketch
lesson
today we will draw a dog.
To understand how best to draw something
it's always helpful to reduce the image
to some basic forms. In the case of a dog
we can reduce it into a few
circles. The bottom two circles will form
the body
and the top circle will form the face.
And let's add another smaller circle to
the top one
this will form the dog's muscle.
Now let's connect the circles to form
the dog's body.
Just with some simple lines for now
and also to have a picture that does not
look like
four circles. For the legs it can be
helpful
to imagine a human's leg with really big
feet standing on their toes.
Especially to make sure that they
face in the right direction
and that all the joints bend the right
way
at the knee the heel and
the toes. The dog would look really
unsettled if for example the knee would
bend in
the wrong direction. So let's just pay
attention here. One
straight line for the tail and for the
face
let's add a simple nose slightly
standing out at the muscle circle.
One ear hanging down at the back of the
skull
and one turned wee for the eye
slightly higher than the nose.
Now we can start outlining the dog's
body and features
if you're using paper it's best to use a
darker
softer pen or pencil if you're using a
digital device like me
maybe it's best to reduce the opacity of
the sketches that you've been working on
so far
and open a new drawing layer for the
outlines.
For the top of the body I simply trace
the preliminary drawing with pretty
straight lines.
But to create a realistic look for the
bottom
you can use kind of hatching lines
so that the fur doesn't lay flat like it
does on top.
Then to add thickness to the legs we
need outlines
on both sides of the
scaffold line. And we also should pay
attention
that the legs tend to get thicker at the
top.
Except when your dog is
wearing roller blades of course.
So using these steps you can draw
dogs in all sorts of poses. The first
step
is to position the circles correctly. You
can draw in the
central axis of the head then it's
easier to find the correct position
for the eyes and muscle. For the quick
sketchy style you can roughly trace the
preliminary drawing with the outlines
and add hair with the help of quick
zigzag lines.
By using the simple steps described here
you can get pretty far in most cases.
As with any subject the best way to
capture it
most accurately is to draw directly
from a living model. Now let's try
one more maybe this will be some kind of
golden retriever. Depending on the pose
and perspective
you will need to vary how you draw
different parts of the body,
bulges and indentations, bones,
muscles and wrinkles. You can often
work out the right places for them using
your imagination.
Sometimes you might need to take a
closer look
at the anatomy of a dog. Now let's start
with the eyes.
Just one circle each. Maybe
I will need one guideline here.
And first I define the corners
of the eyelids by following the
guideline
to get the right angle for the eyes.
Dog's eyes are more circular than humans
eyes.
So I will add the eyelids fairly close
to the circle. The pupil goes
into the middle of the circle and one
reflection point
each. A dog's nose is a pretty
complicated structure
with some bumps and folds. So
here is some kind of a construction plan.
I start with this rectangle
proportionally like a common piece of
paper.
Half it in height and width we only need
the lower part here. Now position the
nostrils
on the horizontal center line. Each one
halfway to the center point.
On the sides two slightly angled down
marks a little bit below the center line
and a little v in the center at
the very bottom. Now connect the markings
with the nostrils with some kind of a
snail
shape. And starting from the snail
a bit inward I draw this half
pipe shape towards the v.
Now we can round the edges
and repeat the nose with some clean
outlines.
From the front the muscle looks
a bit like a w. In this drawing
the dog is looking slightly to the right
so the right side of the w should be a
bit narrower
than the left. The tongue comes out
directly
under the w and hangs out
over the lower lip.
These creases here in the corners of the
mouth
make the dog look more happy.
And we can also start the chin from here.
And I already do the rest of the
outlines of the face.
And for my dog I want an even better
beard. The face is done for now but I
forgot one leg here I
just realized. I just marked the lower
end of each leg now the more distant
ones a little further up.
And now let's take a closer look at the
paws.
A dog's paw has these four toes at the
front and
some kind of a thump pretty far away
from the paw itself.
So from the front we can kind of
construct it like this.
We need these four toes and
the, I call it thump, is
somewhere like above here. And
we got a paw. Okay this looks really
awful.
But okay I have four parts to go.
First of all let's draw the whole path
as
simple shapes just to define the
approximate sizes.
And then just subdivide and fill in
the toes. And the thumb
up here. And with the outlines
I just follow the construction.
You can give the toes more definition by
adding spaces.
And now let's just finish the
preliminary drawing a bit.
Below the neck golden retrievers have
that
kind of a bathrobe color.
And on this side I think I need some
improvements.
Maybe the dog would have some creases
and hills here.
But especially down here I would say
if the dog is sitting like this we would
see the hip bone also.
Maybe a bit lower. And now
as before we can indicate fur in the
outlines with
quick hatching strokes this softens the
hard
edges of the outlines and gives the dog
more fluffiness.
There are many possible workflows of
coloring.
I prefer to work with fill layers for
each
individual color tone. That gives me the
opportunity
to adjust and change individual colors
at the end. Once I got the
whole dog filled with this basic coffee
brown
shade. I use a light pink
shade for the tongue and a very dark
brown shade for the mouth.
The shadow the muscle cast on the tongue
[Music]
and for the nose as well as for the eyes.
Now it is important to decide where the
light
comes from. If the light comes from above
and a bit from the side maybe. just like
I decided here from the left side,
we will need our shadows of course on
the right side.
And at the bottoms. So just following
this
principle I roughly fill every part of
dark with shadows. Maybe some light can
reach this
left side of this muscle part here.
And the whole head will throw a shadow
down here
on the right ear and on the body.
Now I also want this basic shadow
to give the dog a soft coat.
So I soften these hard shadows with
a smoother brush. It's just a
zero percent soft pencil outer edge I'm
using here.
If you are using pencil on paper you can
use a blur tool
for this technique, I guess it's called
a stomp, to get more accurate smudging
than using your fingers.
I also want to have some fur like
texture.
But instead of drawing tons of hair it
is a very common technique
to use a fur brush for this purpose.
So instead of a line it draws
lots of hair at random: Smaller,
larger or even slightly twisted.
You can use the fur brush also in a fill
layer.
Which simply means the hair won't be
black
but any color you want. I also want to
create more depth.
So I got one fill layer more in a very
light brown
tone. And now I'm filling only the
opposite areas.
So the areas which
the light reaches. After this
I can erase all the areas I don't want
to be filled with the light hair texture
especially in the shadows.
Now I will do exactly the same as before
with a darker brown shade, but in the
shadow areas of course.
By this point you also will be able to
tell whether
the individual shapes go well together.
If you've worked with fill layers you
can always
readjust the shades and gradations.
In these darker shadow areas I can
switch now
back to my soft brush and let the dark
hair get denser.
At the end you can also highlight the
nose
with some very light shades. Depending on
your style
you can go into much more detail with
your dog of course.
You can keep a more sketched look or
take the level of
detail up to photorealism.
But I think I am done and glad with my
dog for now.
Hopefully you have enjoyed following
this workflow.
There are always different ways to draw
a picture.
So keep bringing your own ideas
but also keep looking out for
inspiration
from others. I wish you a happy painting
and see you soon.