How To Draw A Realistic Poodle Step By Step

How to Draw a Dog That's Cute Enough to Pet

Okay, who *doesn't* love a good doggo? Sharpen your pencils and learn how to capture the cuteness with a little bit of practice. Though this tutorial walks you through how to draw a beagle, the same method applies to any and all breeds.

Draw a Dog

Level: Easy

What You Need

6B pencil

4B pencil

2B pencil

White Eraser

Kneaded Eraser

Instructions

1. Block In Your Shapes

Start your dog as all drawings begin: a block-in of the basic shapes. Use circles and ovals to create the different forms found in your pup's face, and draw very faint horizontal and vertical guidelines to help you align the eyes, snout, etc.

Work to refine your block-in until you have a basic contour.

2. Lightly Shade

Once you have a clean contour line, clean up the sketch by erasing your guidelines. Begin shading the fur and features. For the blackest parts of the dog, like the eyes and little black nose, use a dark 6B pencil.

3. Define the Texture

This step totally depends on your dog's breed and type of fur — our beagle's short, straight coat is much different than, say, a poodle's curls. But no matter which type of fur you're drawing, you want to shade with directional strokes using a 2B pencil. Don't get caught up trying to draw individual hairs.

As you work, build up the tone and details of the fur by increasing your pressure to define darker sections in your drawing. For even darker effects, switch to a 4B pencil.

4. Use an Eraser

Mold a kneaded eraser into a thin point with flat edges and gently stroke it over the shaded areas of fur. This picks up a little bit of the graphite from smaller sections and makes the fur even more lifelike.

5. Add the Final Details

Keep working on the fur using your different pencils until you're happy with how your pupper looks on paper!