how to draw a dog face

This quick and fairly easy tutorial is intended for beginners and shows some of the basics of drawing a dog's head from the front view. The dog in this case is a Golden Retriever.

Dog head front view drawing step by step

You can see a preview of the main stages of the drawing in the illustration above.

Step 1 – Draw the Outline of the Dog's Head

Before you draw anything else draw a vertical line that will be the middle of the dog's head and draw a horizontal line intersecting with it. Try and place the horizontal line on the level that you want to have the dog's eyes at. The point of the vertical line is to help make sure that both sides of the dog's head are even and the horizontal line will later help you place other features such as the ears and eyes on the same level.

Start the head drawing by first sketching out the overall rough shape of the dog's head (you want to start with the largest proportions first). In this case the shape will be somewhat similar to an egg but with a less rounded bottom.

Step 2 – Draw the Outlines of the Ears & Snout

Moving down to the next step you can sketch out the shapes of the ears and the snout as there are the next two largest parts of the dog's head. You can avoid any smaller twists and turns at this stage as you can add those in later.

Step 3 – Draw the Outlines of the Facial Features

Add the outlines of the smaller details of the head. In this case those will be the basic shapes of the nose and eyes as well as the eyebrow areas.

Once done you can erase the vertical and horizontal guide lines.

Step 4 – Add the Smaller Details & Fur to Finish the Drawing

For this step add the smaller details of the eyes, nose and mouth. Also add some hints of fur along the areas shown in the example.

Draw the fur as a series of small clumps running along the outlines of the dog's head.

Drawing the Eyes

The irises of a dog take up the majority of the eye so that in many cases you hardly see the whites of the eyes at all.

Drawing the Nose

The nose has a cut like shape in the middle going from the bottom and fading towards the top.

Drawing the Fur

The fur for a golden retriever will tend to stick out around the bottom half of the ears and very lightly around the bottom of the snout.

There will also be swirl like shapes of fur around the eyes for the eyebrows and a parting line in the fur around the middle of the head between the eyes.

Conclusion

Dog's come in many breeds, shapes and sizes. You could probably easily make an entire book on just drawing dogs. It's difficult to cover a lot in just one tutorial but it still should give you an idea of a good approach to drawing a dog's head.

For drawing a dog from the side view see:

How to Draw a Dog Step by Step

For other similar tutorials check out:

How to Draw a Wolf Face & Head Step by Step
How to Draw Lion Face & Head Step by Step
How to Draw a Sitting Cat Front View – Step by Step
How to Draw a Horse From the Side View Tutorial
How to Draw Bird Step by Step – Side View