For all the dog lovers out there!
Sketched with 2B, HB, and 4B pencils. Quick, loose style done in 20 minutes.
I didn’t have a reference photo, but rather was inspired by a small painting by an artist I really like, Kanna Aoki. The palette she uses is very bright and vibrant, but she’s masterful at capturing that magical California lighting in landscapes.
Today’s sketch is one of my dogs, Boom, curled into his comfy dream ball position. Always amazes me that a 60 pound dog can curl up like this. This is a 20 minute sketch done from the couch. I had to go fast because despite how soundly he sleeps, mind you he’s deaf, he has a creepy sixth sense that tells him when he’s being stared at. Invariably, when I try to draw him, he always moves before I have enough on he paper to improvise. Tonight, however, he waited long enough for me to get the outline down, after which he only moved his head a few times.
Boom is all black, so the use of hair direction and basic values was important to make this work. I’m happy with it as a quick sketch b/c it really captures the essence of Boom curled in a ball. I tried this a year ago and it didn’t go well, which reminded me that it can be rewarding to go back to an old subject and see if it’s easier the second time around.
The outline was done with an HB pencil; everything else was 2B.
A few posts ago I had declared a drawing of one of my dogs completed, but was drawn back in. I didn’t like the floating head look and wanted to fix that problem. With some guidance from my drawing teacher (thanks again Laurie!), I got to the finish line with a drawing that I’m proud to hang on the wall.
Some significant enhancements: 1) added the wood floor, 2) a plain rug, 3) darkened some of the darkest areas of her face with an ebony pencil, and lastly 4) added a light cast shadow.
With a close-up of a dog face under my belt, it was time to tackle a different perspective. This is my mom’s dog, Dixie, in full dream mode. She’s very camera shy, so this is as good as reference photos get for her.
First session lasted a couple of hours, but only after having done an initial reference sketch, which helped get the difficult curled up shape and proportions of body parts just so. Once I had this much done I had to give my arm a break. All those hairs start to drive you nuts. Pretty good start, but a little creepy since she’s floating on the page. 
Another session, probably 90 minutes, got the obvious dog bed in place, but also worked the ebony pencil to get the values right on the folds of Dixie’s coat. 
Pretty happy with the final composition. I’m genuinely surprised at how quickly this came together. There were 3 big challenges with this drawing.
1. The face and general complexity of dog parts involved in a curled canine. But the reference photo was really washed out for the face, so I had to draw what I knew was there rather than just what I saw, b/c I knew what I was looking at was wrong.
2. The hair is much different compared to my previous effort with Zip’s dog face. The strokes are longer and thinner. It was also very tricky to get the white dotted pattern and random splotches in some places just right. Used a 2B for most of the hairs, but in some spots experimented with an HB.
3. The values on a curled up dog SUCK! I’d love to blame it on the lighting in the photo, but even if the lighting was studio quality, I’m pretty sure the challenge of gradating values to show the change in depth in the curled center area would be the same. But I got it to a good point and decided I better leave it alone.
Overall very happy with this one. I’ll have to do a similar composition of my dogs curled on their beds.
So it may not look like much was done between the last post of Zip’s face, which I’ve decided to call “Play with me?”, but I spent a couple of short sessions trying to get the shading just right so the composition has more depth. I think I’ve taken it as far as I can and ready to move on, although my drawing instructor (Laurie) may have something else to say about that, but I’m really happy with it for my first real effort at a dog face drawing. Now I have 2 other dogs who are jealous and ready for their turn in the studio.
For those interested in the technical details:
Thanks to some very helpful guidance from my drawing instructor, I learned how to draw the nose and “presto!”, Zip has a complete face! The nose was done with an ebony pencil and the key was getting the values right by working over the area repeatedly. Finally, the paper texture was helpful in giving the nose that dotted/pitted look of a dog sniffer. Never saw that coming, but apparently it’s a reliable trick.
Worked some more shading on the darker side of the face and the paws. I’m guessing one more session should finish this up.
Zip is one of my dogs, a 2 year old ball of energy. She lives for frisbees and tennis balls. She’s incorrigible and relentless with her need for play, until about an hour after dinner, at which point the storm has passed and she’s wiped out.
The reference photo is what I’m working towards, and represents this calm that I so embrace at the end of the day.
Below is the sketch after 2 sessions totaling maybe 90 minutes. The first 30 minutes was getting the outline right, followed by an hour tonight drawing more than a thousand lines of hair in varied directions. The time it takes to get the masses of hair going in the right direction is indeed tedious, but well worth the effort once the shading of values starts. It’s a little like magic as the shape comes to life. And that’s with just a few other sketches done in this fashion as practice, so I’m hoping these dog faces start to get more realistic with some regular practice.
Stage 2 incorporating values, hair, and some of her coat patterns. Saving the challenge of the face for last. Liking the way this is shaping up. First time attempt at complete dog drawing.
This took a couple of 30 minute sessions, so another hour or so.
Started some sketching of the dogs. This is the ball-obsessed puppy. About a 30 minute effort, focused on proportions and various angles of the sitting pose. Bad lighting on the photo, but you get the idea.
This was done with my right hand, my dominant hand by far.
Art Bern 