How to learn to draw a dog Automatic translate

Measure and proportions

Looking for the first four-legged "model", stop your choice on a dog with very short hair so that it does not hide the shape of its body. At this stage of the training, you should not draw dogs such as the Afghan Hound or Old English Shepherd.

In order to draw an animal well, domestic or any other, it is necessary to master the basic elements of proportion and correctly convey the size of the various parts of the body and their relationship with each other.

For many aspiring artists, this aspect is one of the most difficult problems. And yet, if you want your work to have a convincing resemblance to a real subject, it is very important to correctly “grasp” the proportions. If this primary structure turns out to be incorrect, you cannot correct it later with either color or chiaroscuro.

Pencil method

Below is a simple but effective method to achieve the required level of accuracy of the picture. Select some part of your subject - say, the dog’s head: and use it as a unit of measure. Hold the pencil in outstretched hand, aligning its upper end with the top of the dog’s head. Then move your thumb to mark the bottom of the head with your fingernail. Thus, you will get a unit of measurement with which you determine how many “heads” make up the length of the dog’s body or its width.

When making such measurements, remember that your hand should be straight, the pencil vertical, and the thumb should be stationary at a certain point on the pencil.

Eye test

If you need to find out if you can correctly estimate proportions without resorting to measurements, try this simple test. First of all, choose a suitable object for yourself. It can be a live dog or a photograph (only good, and the larger, the better). In fact, a photograph is even preferable here, since a living dog can change its position or even run away, and then it will be more difficult for you to check the accuracy of your drawing.

Now draw this dog in very general terms. For this test, do not try to delve into the details: if you want, apply only a series of strokes to the paper, conveying the proportions of its body - the size of the head, the shape of the body, its length and width, the length of the legs and tail. And all this is constantly correlated with the size of the head.

Accuracy check

Now compare your sketch with a photograph or a live dog. To do this, use the pencil method described above (if you worked with a photograph, then, of course, you do not need to hold the pencil in your outstretched hand), and write down your results.

Then check your drawing in the same way. How do the proportions in the figure correspond to the proportions of the dog in the picture or a live dog?

Eye training

When creating a drawing, it is best for a novice artist to use the pencil method of measurement - then you will lay the correct foundation and accurately convey all the angles and proportions. And as the skills develop, you will become better at conveying the proportions and will be able to evaluate them by eye. And then you will resort to the help of pencil measurements only in those cases when you notice that something looks wrong in your drawing.

During work, train your eye by constantly comparing the relative magnitude of the various parts of the picture. For example, check to see if the front legs of the dog are longer than the rear? How does neck length compare to leg length? Is her head too big compared to her body? Did you convey the width of the body correctly?

Using thread with cargo

A thread with a load is the simplest device for checking angles, you can do it yourself by tying a small load to the end of a strong thread. To work with this “device” you only need to hold the other end of the thread so that the load hangs freely. Then you will get a true vertical line.

Although this method is more accurate than the pencil one, it has one drawback - when you move the thread from one part of the body to the other, both hands are occupied, since you have to hold the load so that it does not swing from side to side.

Shape and structure

If you take the time and get to know the dog’s anatomy a bit, it will give you a better understanding of its external form - and as a result you can create more convincing drawings.

Where to begin

Your best bet is to start exploring canine anatomy with the appropriate reference material. Your local library should have dog-care books, and you will probably find books that suit you. You will find such books on book shelves.

Skeleton and muscles

You do not need to delve particularly deeply into this information if you are not going to become a professional artist. Nevertheless, it will be very useful for you to know in the most general terms where the muscles on the dog’s body are, how they attach to the bones, to know the structure of the skeleton and especially those parts that lie closest to the surface and most affect the shape of the body.

Perspective

Perspective is an optical illusion that allows an artist to depict objects that look voluminous, three-dimensional, on a flat, two-dimensional surface. If you want your drawings to look convincing, you will have to learn this focus, ”or rather, an artistic device.

There are three types of perspectives — linear, tonal (or aerial) and shortened — all of which can convey a sense of volume, depth, and distance.

The linear perspective is perhaps the most widely known of these three types of visual illusion. According to its rules, objects seem less and less, the further they are located from the viewer. So, a dog standing close to you will appear larger than one that is located at some distance from you, even if they are actually the same height.

The tonal perspective is transmitted through the depth of tone and the reduction of objects; it is based on atmospheric effects on distant objects - the farther they are from you, the more muted the colors and the difference between light and shadow become. Of course, the body of the dog did not stretch so much that such a difference was noticeable - however, to achieve a visual effect, you can “cheat” and exaggerate the gradual changes in color and detail, emphasizing the feeling of depth and three-dimensionality of the picture. Such a “trick” is called an artistic device.

A shortened perspective is a linear variation. As the name implies, it shows how, as an object moves away, its various parts are distorted, seem to be shorter, as if “condensed”. Sometimes they cringe so much that they almost disappear. Therefore, resorting to the reception of a shorter perspective, it is all the more important to use the measurement method, which was described earlier, so that you draw what you really see, and not what you know what it should be there.