How to Draw a Dog's Face – An Easy & Fun Step by Step Guide

posted in: 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, Crayons, Dogs, Drawing, Easy How to Draw Tutorials, How to Draw Animals, View by Grade, View by Media |

Step by step instructions for drawing a cute dog's head with big eyes, pointy ears, and a cute snout.

How to Draw a Dog Face
Drawing of a Dog Face

Not all animal drawing lessons need to fit the entire animal on one sheet of paper. Sometimes it's fun to just focus on the part that is the most expressive, like the face. This tutorial features a simple dog with a cute smile, wagging tongue and big adorable ears.

If you notice that your students tend to not use their entire paper, and are drawing on the small side, this close up view of a dog face will mix things up for them. Drawing small is a natural tendency that many beginner artists start out with. It's kind of like a comfortable approach they are used to, so it helps to give them a project that asks them to think BIG, and fill up their entire sheet of paper.

Working with Drawing Guides

The best way to get students off to a good start to any drawing project is to show them how to use guides as a reference point.

You may have noticed that all of the tutorials on this site have center guides that are showing as both a vertical line and a horizontal line. If students make lines like those on theirown paper, before drawing, they will have some extra help in seeing where to begin their drawing.

For instance, as seen in Step 1 below, the sketch of this dog face starts on the center line, halfway down the thetop box. A large curve is drawn that ends half way down the center of thebottom box.

Drawing skills are all about getting the size and placement of lines on paper, so having some visual reference point to get started, will always help anyone learn how to be a little more accurate.

So does that mean students need to use their pencil to draw big fat lines down the center of their paper before they start? Goodness no, please don't! That will most likely be hard to erase and distract from any finished art. No, simply fold the paper in half both ways, make a crease, and unfold. The beauty is that by the time the drawing is done and colored in, the creases will disappear.

And now, on to our drawing project.

Preview of the Step by Step Dog Face Tutorial

How to Draw a Dog Face

RECOMMENDED MATERIALS

  • Eraser. Large ones you can hold in your hand do a much better job than just the pencil tips.
  • Black Sharpie Marker. These fine point permanent marker pens make nice black outlines, have a good tip for coloring, and never bleed when they get wet. Use them with good ventilation and add extra paper underneath to protect your tables.
  • Prang Crayons. These are a bit softer than other crayons so they sometimes look like oil pastels. They also have a some nice brown shades that Crayola does not have unless you buy their larger boxes.
  • Crayola Crayons. The reliable brand that always works well. The 24 pack has some of my favorite golden orange and yellow colors that seem a bit richer and warmer than the ones Prang has.

DIRECTIONS

Time needed:45 minutes.

How to Draw a Dog Face

  1. Draw half of the head.

  2. Add a matching side.

  3. Draw the dog's eyes, dog nose and mouth. Add extra circles for the highlights in the eyes.

  4. Add the tongue and face lines.

  5. Draw the two matching ears.

  6. Add scruffy fur on the cheeks.

  7. Draw the neck and shoulders.

  8. Erase the gray lines.

  9. Trace with a marker and color.

More Fun Dogs to Draw

How to Draw a Doberman
How to Draw a Pug
How to Draw a Dog
How to Draw a French Bulldog
How to Draw a Corgi
how to draw a dog face