Dog Drawing 1st attempt

[Dreamers]

My first attempt to draw a silly dog lol.
Few days after I made this drawing I went to a local bookstore to find a good book for "How to make pencil drawing" and it was for wild animals, after having a quick browse through some of the pages it seems to be ok and I decided to buy it. So after that, I got home and started reading the first page saying "this book is made Not for amateurs and requires to have some basic drawing skill or knowledge" aaaargg lol. Not realy the thing I was looking for hehe.
Anyways, here is the result.



Any tips or criticism are welcome...

 

[Paul]

Really good mate, have you tried doing a live tracing yet?
Then take away the original and then add to your new traced image, not really the same on a pad as tissue paper/tracing paper. Try it you will see what i mean mate.

 

[jaysuess]

I think your book basically spells it out for you: learn the basics first. Although a good attempt, if you really want to learn to pencil draw you need to start with the foundations. It's like constructing a skyscraper. Without a solid foundation the building collapses. A good place to start is Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". Work on large paper (18x24) not small paper (allows for more fluidity of linework, very important for beginners) and concentrate on making good quality lines, light and shadow, three-dimensional structure. And no offense intended to Paul above, but please, I beg you. If you want to learn to draw, NEVER, NEVER trace! Tracing, like smoking, is a very nasty habit and should be avoided like the plague. It hinders your ability to SEE and seeing is the most important tool an artist has. There are no shortcuts to learning to draw. Good luck and I hope you find as much joy and passion in drawing as I have.

 

[ibclare]

Boy, do I agree with both of the above. But keep that book. If you love drawing, some day you'll want it!

I'll never forget my first formal art instructor. I was 11 years old at the Chicago Art Institute's Young Peoples' Program. I was having trouble drawing this object and the teacher came up behind me, leaned over, and watched what I was doing. Then he stood up and said to the group of us, "When you draw, look at your subject and draw what you see."

Sounds kind of stupid and obvious. But if you have never drawn a live scene or subject (including inanimate), apply the concept and you might find that it's a revelation. I did.

 

[Dreamers]

yay thanks, I will keep that in mind.
I did draw it as it came through my mind even without any drawing experience, I found out when I started with the head but the legs didn't fit anymore lol, so that's also one thing I need to work out, so the basics that will be for me I think. I can imagine the circles and so but not realy the proportions I think...
I don't know what that tracing is might need to look it up somewhere where google is .
The 3d effect I don't know either, so I think I will just focus getting the drawing proportions right first...

Thanks again everyone
Dreamers....

 

[Fatboy73]

Hi dreamers. I've posted an example of what helped me when I started drawing, and what I think paul is taling about when he says tracing. You seem to understand that starting out with basic shapes is the way to go but have trouble with the proportions.

It helped me immensely to take a picture of an actual dog and trace out the basic shapes . Practice this a lot, and when you try to do it with out photo reference, you hand has a feel for the basic shapes already. I believe it has something to do with muscle memory.

It can also help to get some anatomy pictures of a dogs( showing all of the muscles) so you have an idea of what each muscle group looks like.
I used some different colors to try and get some clarity between the shapes, I hope this helps.

 

[Dreamers]

Thanks Fatboy73.
Now I can see what the tracing actualy is.
I went to get a book for anatomy pictures of animals and will give it a try to practice.

I'll post some result later on, first I'll need some practise lol.
Thanks again and also to everyone else for the support

Dreamers.....

 

[Dataflow]

there are a lot of free tut on the net.
just do a search for "learning to draw"

 

[agentmoeller]

dog drawing

For cartoon-style drawing, exaggeration is the name of the game.

Take a good picture of a dog (or whatever) you want to draw, and exaggerate the prominent features.