Teaching Your Dog To Draw/paint
If youre looking to take your dogs artistic skills to the next level, you can actually teach them to draw. For this trick/skill, your dog will learn to hold a marker or paintbrush and then draw directly onto paper.
Youll need:
Toilet paper or paper towel tube
Paper or canvas that you want your dog to draw on
Thank You For Stopping By
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you are interested in more posts like this, below are my other popular painting tutorials. Simply click on a title below to view the article:
How To Paint White Fur Painting A White German Shepherd Step-By-Step
What Is Value In Painting? The #1 Way To Improve Your Painting
How to Paint Black Fur Portrait of a Pug
7 Portrait Painting Tips For Traditional And Digital Painters
How To Paint A Dog Portrait Step-By-Step In Oil
Tips For Painting Silver Objects
8 Tips for Painting Black Fur
How To Paint A Cat In Oil Step-By-Step With Jorge & Nacho
30 Faces 30 Days Portrait Painting Challenge
Painting A Cat In Oil Featuring Prescott, A Gorgeous Maine Coon Cat
How To Paint A Sphynx Cat In Oil Step-by-Step
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Let The Course Pay For Itself
I currently sell my realistic pet portraits like these for upwards of $2,500. You can get an idea of what others are charging for their pet portraits here, here and here.
You could easily be making this kind of money too as pet portraits are the one most requested painting commissions worldwide. After this course and a little practice you could be inundated with commissions.
Let’s face it, the cost of having your own dog’s portrait painted by yourself on the wall is priceless.
This is the most comprehensive course on how to paint realistic dogs and you will get access to it in month 5.
It will be the most fun you can have with a brush in your hand.
PS – Although I paint in acrylics during the course, you can also follow along using oils as the actual painting techniques are identical. I have included a video in the course to explain the differences.
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Finishing With Detail Work
Below is a close up of Maidens face. The image is slightly darker than the actual painting, but you can see where Ive added detail. I went from a fairly large brush in the beginning of the painting and kept getting smaller as I got closer to finishing. By the time I got to the details on Maidens face, I was using a very tiny brush.
Close up of the details in the face. I added a little light to the eyes to make them sparkle just a bit.
Even though I was in tiny brush mode, I still kept most of the strokes pretty abstract. I know I keep beating the drum of matching values, but I dont think I can emphasize enough how important values are especially for beginning artists.
When the values are right, the human brain reads and understands the information correctly. The brain is very efficient and will fill in details for us. I didnt need to paint every strand of hair on Maidens face, because when you look at the painting as a whole, it reads as white fur on a white dog.
German Shepherd Becomes First Russian Dog To Win Canine Loyalty Award
A German Shepherd from St. Petersburg has become the first Russian dog to win an international canine loyalty prize for rescuing a girl from rape, Russian media reported this week.
Volk-Merkury, a 9-year-old police dog, was recognized for finding a 15-year-old girl who went missing on her way to her mothers work last September.
Volk-Merkurys handler Maria Koptseva started the search around the area where the girls phone was last turned on, the Russian state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.
After smelling the girls pillowcase, Volk-Merkury followed the scent to an abandoned building where she was being held. A 36-year-old repeat offender who was preparing to rape the 15-year-old was arrested at the scene.
Volk-Merkury is the first Russian dog to win the International Dog Loyalty Award in its 60-year history. Eleven other dogs, all Italian, received prizes at the ceremony in the town of San Rocco Di Camogli in the Genoa province on Monday.
Volk-Merkurys story didnt leave a single member of the jury indifferent, event organizer Sonia Gentoso told RIA Novosti.
Were very glad that our award will go to Russia for the first time, Gentoso, who presented the award to Koptseva via live video link, said.
The International Dog Loyalty Award was inaugurated in 1962 in honor of Saint Roch, the patron saint of dogs who, according to legend, was cared for by a dog while he was ill from the plague in the 14th century.
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German Shepherd Portrait And Client Comments
After several weeks building up the lovely layers of fur, Iriss portrait was finally finished. I really did enjoy painting her and I miss looking at her portrait here in my Studio. It was finally time to pack up the portrait and send it to the USA. It took just 24hrs to reach my client! Once I had finished the painting I posted the portrait on social media and had some lovely responses and comments. Below are my clients comments.
Finishing Your Realistic German Shepherd Drawing
For this very final step, you can make your drawing even more realistic by removing the outline and tracing over your fur strokes with your paint. Use the color that corresponds to that particular part of your german shepherd, and cover any outlines or fine lines that disrupt the realism of your drawing.
Congratulations for finishing your realistic german shepherd drawing! We really hope that you have enjoyed the drawing process and that you are happy with your final sketch. Now that you know the basic process of how to draw a german shepherd, you can modify the tutorial to draw other types of dogs.
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Constructing The Muzzle Of Your German Shepherd Drawing
If you take another look at the finished drawing at the top of this tutorial, you will see that the mouth of the german shepherd is open slightly. In this step, we are going to use construction lines to lay the foundations for this muzzle. Begin by drawing a slightly uneven U shape that extends from the head circle down towards the left side of the canvas.
Beginning where this first upper U shape ends, draw another, smaller U shape to represent the bottom jaw of your german shepherd drawing.
Creating The Main Body For Your German Shepherd Drawing
As with our other animal tutorials, we always begin our sketches by using construction lines to help us lay out the basic proportions, shape, and size of our animal. We will start our German Shepherd sketch by using a large oval shape for the main part of its body. When positioning this oval, keep the finished sketch in mind.
The oval should slant in a way that matches the stance of the dog. The head is on our left, so that will be the side that is sloped upwards. Thus, the right-hand side will be sloped downwards to match the natural direction of the legs.
You will still be adding other limbs around this main oval, so be sure to leave enough room and position the oval in the middle of the canvas.
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Supplies I Used In This Painting
Ive listed a lot of the supplies I used throughout this article. Many of them are linked in red to Amazon so you can take a look at them and buy them if you think theyll be useful. I do get a very small commission when you use my link.
Below are the paints I use for most of my work. I have an introductory set of artist oil paints from Gamblin. It is more cost-effective to buy the set rather than individual tubes, but do what works best for you.
I would highly recommend a mahl stick to help you steady your hand as you paint. You can see me use it in the video where I paint a pug. The stick I have isnt fancy, but it does the trick. You can use any lightweight stick that will help you to steady your hand though. A dowl or handle of some sort of broom may work just fine. If you want a fancier mahl stick, this one may be for you.
I also used Gamblins solvent-free gel to add body to the paint and Gamsol mineral spirits to thin it.
Canvas Considerations And Tips For Drawing Proportionally
I started out by doing a sketch of Maiden in vine charcoal on a 16×20 stretched canvas pre-primed with acrylic gesso. I would recommend a professional grade canvas rather than the super cheap bulk canvases you buy in multi-packs. Linen canvas is my favorite surface to work on, but for this portrait, I used a professional grade cotton canvas. Canvas panels are an even better surface to work on because they are more stable, but arent as readily available in art stores. If you like to try out an oil primed linen panel, the Raphael Oil Primed Panel is fantastic and worth the extra expense.
To get proportions correct, I used a grid and I also printed out the photo of Maiden to the size of the canvas I was painting on. This isnt necessary to do and I dont always have the benefit of sizing my reference photo to my canvas, but I went ahead and printed out the photo to 16×20. Since my reference was the same size as my painting, I used a proportional divider as well to measure out key points.
You dont need all of these tricks and tools, but sometimes these things come in handy when you want to get your drawing done and your painting started as soon as possible.
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Making Comparisons To The Reference Photo
Below you can see me comparing my overall composition to the printout of the reference photo. The reference photo is a foot or two behind my easel, so it looks smaller, but I can assure you that they are the same size.
One of the reasons for printing out a reference photo to the same size as the painting is so you can use the sight-size method. Ideally, you would have your image of the same size right next to the canvas so you can move your eyes back and forth quickly between the original and the painting. By moving your eyes back and forth, it is easier to spot differences.
I talk more about this in a digital tutorial of a portrait I did and go into more detail. It is much easier to do using a real canvas than a digital canvas.
Checking against the reference photo
Another trick I like to use when comparing my reference to the painting is to take a photo of the painting as I make progress. That is where these photos came from. When you see the painting really tiny on screen, it helps you to spot areas you need to work on.
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Creating The Head For Your German Shepherd Drawing
The next step in our German Shepherd sketch is quite easy and will not take long to complete. Draw a slightly irregular circle and position it just above the left part of the oval you drew for the body. The irregular shape of the circle is to help with the construction of the head, so keep the left side tilted slightly downward. The top and bottom are slightly flattened, and the right side is tilted slightly upward.
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Using A Gray Scale And Value Finder
I dont know which is harder, painting white fur or painting black fur, like the portrait of a pug below. Both are a challenge, but a simple and inexpensive Gray Scale And Value Finder can be a tremendous help along the way.
Mine is in pitiful shape because it soaked up some oil, but it still works and helps me to identify where my tones need to be lighter and darker. You can find your value on your reference photo and then move it over to your painting to see if your value is lighter or darker.
It may also help to take a photo of your painting and convert it to black and white. Sometimes that can help you to see where the values need to be darker and lighter.
Using a Gray Scale & Value Finder can help you figure out how light or dark a color should be
Doing Color Studies On The Ipad
I have to admit that I was not sure how to do Maidens face with such a strong light source casting shadow over her face. So instead of working out the colors on the canvas, I decided to use my iPad to help me work through some of the areas I thought would give me trouble.
You do NOT need an iPad Pro to do this. Simply doing a small color study on a spare canvas or canvas pad would do the trick just as well. I love this because its not paper resembling canvas, its the real thing.
Color and value study using the iPad Pro
Ive found that my iPad Pro is a great tool for working out parts of the painting Im struggling with. I use ArtRage, which is as close to painting with real paint digitally as far as Im concerned. I can do this while sitting on my couch at home or waiting for the oil to be changed in my car. Its very convenient but doesnt do the work for you. As you can see above, I was more concerned with values than brush strokes. I also painted four or five versions of her eyes to help me figure out how to handle them later on in the painting.
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How To Paint German Shepherd Fur: Full Process Video
This video gives a step-by-steo breakdown of the alla-prima painting technique I use to create the textures, colours and shading in German Shepherds beautiful fur.
These techniques are some of my favourites to use in all my breed portraits! I love how the oils blend into each other to produce richness and depth.
To get right to the fur painting technique itself, Ill start here with a sketch and progress through blending and texturing, stopping before the hard details like eyes, nose and teeth.
Want to see the next steps? Check out my 5 minute video on dog eye painting. Believe it or not, the eyes can take almost as long as the fur, despite how much smaller they are!
Work In Progress Of German Shepherd Iris
Below is a work in progress of Iriss portrait. German Shepherds have lovely thick fur which has many different layers and colours. I should know we have a German Shepherd ourselves! The hoover comes out daily! and dont you just love the mud they bring in :-). I love the thick texture of their coats. Lots of beautiful colours to paint.
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Training Your Puppy To Fetch And Retrieve
A puppy that runs to retrieve objects is not only getting physical exercise he is also getting mental stimulation. Playing fetch and retrieve is a chance for your dog to get some exercise as well as practice his instinctive hunting skills. And throwing and fetching objects can also keep children happy for quite some time!
Before you are able to train your dog to run and fetch objects, you must first train him to hold objects in its mouth. Dont use squeaky toys for this as your dog will then want to chew them! While training your puppy to hold things in its mouth, reward with verbal and physical praise, rather than treats.
You can begin training your puppy to fetch things and bring them back to you, once you have taught him how to hold things. Trainers advise that the ideal age to teach a puppy to hold and fetch things is at around six to eight weeks old.
Most puppies will learn this fairly easily and quickly, although as with other aspects of training, it depends on the animal and how much time you can devote to it. German shepherds are not generally selectively bred for retrieving, although they can easily be trained.
As with other aspects of training, things may not always go smoothly. If your puppy is reluctant to fetch, try to get him excited by throwing a squeaky toy and running with it yourself. If your dog seems reluctant to bring the object back to you, you may have to continue working on the command to come.
Fluffing Up And Modeling The Fur
In this step, I decided to go back to finishing the fur before it dried too much. I used a fairly big brush and worked quickly. I made sure my brush strokes went in the direction of her fur pattern and kept everything loose. Using more abstract brush strokes can create a sense of movement which brings the painting to life.
I also used a warm white at first when I started to lighten the values. This kept me from getting the whites too bright. I reserved titanium white for the highlights where the sun was hitting the fur.
Starting on those amazing ears
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