How to Draw Lifelike Dog Portraits

Take a series of photographs of the dog you are going to draw. Capturing interesting, unusual or dramatic looks or poses in your reference photos will help make your art that much more interesting. Take your time and be patient. You may want to have an assistant to help limit the dog's movement. Experiment using the close-up and telephoto features of your camera. Try to capture the dog's personality in all your photos.

Select the best photo as your reference photo for your drawing. Very lightly sketch in a large line drawing on the blue illustration board in pencil. Do not worry about details at this time. Show the general placement of the eyes, nose and mouth and make sure the proportions are correct. Dogs have different facial proportions and it is extremely important to get them correct at this stage of the drawing.

Fill in the larger masses of fur on the drawing with a colored pastel stick matching the color of your dog's fur. Use the side of the pastel stick to draw. Vary the intensity of the pastel color by letting up on the pressure on the pastel stick to prevent monotony in the drawing. Notice where the fur graduates into darker tones and add a darker shade of the body color to suggest this. When you are drawing these masses of color think of what you are doing as creating a sculpture of the dog. In other words, as you draw, imagine you are sculpting his body with the pastel sticks to create a 3-D effect.

Add other colors to the drawing for other shades of fur. Break the pastel sticks into smaller pieces so you can continue to use the flat side, but now create finer detail. Press on one side of the stick with your thumb as you draw to create 3-D effects in the fur. Begin adding more details to the face, especially the brow above the eye, the sides of the nose, the eyes, the tongue and lower jaw. As you draw, keep some of the color of the illustration board showing through in the shadow areas to keep the drawing vibrant.