How to draw cartoon dogs – part 2

How to draw cartoon dogs – part 2…. lets get started!

Above are three views of a simple dogs head – based on a circle for the head.

Notice the position and form of the snout – much larger than the one we drew for a cat. From the front it is almost a triangle with curved angles. From the side-view almost the same shape but only using two sides of the triangle. The shape only becomes more complicated when you want to draw it in three-quarter view. Here you have to use a little spacial creativity… imagining how the snout looks between the two extremes. Its not a triangle or an oval/circle, but something in between with the sharpest angle closer to the nose. The best way to get used to this is to copy the example above and practise often – looking at photos of dogs from different angles and becoming familiar with the distortions of the form of the snout.

The nose is a black triangle form, pretty simple and with no detail of nostrils to complicate it.

Dots or short lines for eyes – placed just a little higher than where the snout is fixed to the head, so you give some room for the forehead.

The ears I’ve kept simple too. Just big floppy oval(ish) flaps, and shaded for contrast.

This is your begin point. You can adapt all the elements in this basic head form to create a variety of cartoon-dog heads – try changing the shape of the ears, making them triangular or elongated. Alter the head itself – make it more square, shorten or lengthen the snout, highten the forehead. Make the eyes larger and add eyebrows (dogs have eyebrows, that’s why they can look so sad sometimes!)… as in the examples below.

Next thing is to use your sketches of dog-breeds to give you more ideas and features to play around with. In Part 3 we can take a look at the form of the body, compare it to that of a cat, and look at some cartoon dog characters. See you then.