Drawing a Dog

Ask most people and they will agree that drawing can be difficult, and drawing living things even more so. Personally I disagree, because I have always found it much easier to draw animals as apposed to things that don't move. There is more room for imagination in animals with so many positions and designs to choose from, which is probably why they are used more in cartoons.

The "6 Week Drawing Course" book by Barrington Barber is a book that goes over how to draw many things, including still life and its branches, landscapes, animals and portraits/figures. But I'm going to be focusing in on the animal section. It covers birds, cats, dogs, farm life, horses, zoo life, and herds. The book states that "...you need to make a conscious effort to draw only what you see"(Barber 17). This is essentially saying that it is best to have what you are drawing right in front of you.

The first thing from the book I will be drawing is a dog, the breed being a miniature pinscher. If I had access to other dogs I would have drawn them as well. The book states that you should "... draw the main shape simply at first and add detail in the time you are given" (Barber 103). It also has  these pictures as an example.

 

First I hunted down my dog while he was mostly asleep so he wouldn't move much, and I began to sketch him down.
Here is the position

                                                      The sketch looked like this.            

 

Then I added more detail until I was satisfied with the product.

If you had done this drawing, what might you have changed? Should shading have been added? Let me know any thoughts in the comments.

Barber, Barrington. 6-Week Drawing Course: a professional programme for artists.
     Arcturus Publishing Limited, 2014.