How to Draw Cartoon Dog

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Following this tutorial, you’ll quickly learn how to draw a cartoon dog. You’ll be amazed at how simple it is.

Draw three circles as you see here. These three circles represent the head, the chest, and the back of the dog’s body.

If possible draw them in the same or similar position and distance to each other as in this picture. These first three circles will determine the shape and size of your cartoon dog.

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Next to the head circle draw an ellipse. This will represent the part of the dog’s mouth.

On the back, draw another two “noodles”, these are the outlines of the dog’s thighs. Notice, that one “noodle” looks like an up-side-down egg and another one (far side) looks like a bean.

Now, join the chest ball and the back ball together by a softly curved line.

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Use similar softly curved lines to join chest-head, head-mouth…and…draw all four legs.

Generally, drawing an animal’s legs might be quite a challenge. But here, you should be able to do it easily.

Now, you almost know how to draw cartoon dogs :) …well, not yet exactly. After a few details, we are almost there.

click the image to enlarge

Draw the eye and the mouth. It should be smiling, because it looks friendlier.

Do not mind if you make some small mistakes with a pencil here and there. It is a cartoon, not a portrait. Be easy about it. Whatever the outcome is, it is just fine. If you are not satisfied with it, you can draw a new - better one.

I always recommend drawing every picture at least 3 x (three times) so that you can memorize the strokes and refine them.

click the image to enlarge

Now, erase all unnecessary help-guide-lines you drew in the beginning. Use eraser as necessary that is why we have pencil-type-erasers. After you erase all unnecessary lines you will get a clean outline of the cartoon dog body. Don’t forget to draw the ears :)

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So far you had mainly thin pencil lines. Now, draw a distinct clear outline. I used soft pencil 4B. If you don’t have such a soft graphite pencil handy, ordinary HB is also OK.

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Start working on eyes first. Make the black iris and leave the small shiny white dot in the middle – first, observe the eyes on the picture carefully!

Darken the nose and work out the rest of the body parts as seen in the picture.

You can also create your own version of a cute cartoon if you like. Use as much creativity as you can. It’s just a cartoon!