DRAWING CARTOON DOGS FOR FUN

Decided to write this blog just because it has been so much fun creating these dogs and I wanted to share how to do this. I think most people will be able to get some nice results very easily even if you do not do much drawing. Kyle T. Webster’s YouTube video called Digital Drawing Workout: Drawing Dogs with Custom Brushes was used as a guide for creating all these dog images. The brushes in the video are all ones Kyle created – I copied each brush into a Photoshop Brush Dog Group in the Brushes Panel so they could be found quickly while drawing. Also added other relevant brushes (see end of blog for more on this) and some variations of Kyles’s brushes that helped create some of the dog differences.

These dogs all followed the steps Kyle discussed in his video. The first step is to find an image of the breed of dog to use as a reference for starting your drawing. All the blog images contain a rough drawing layer that used his Megapack->Inkbox->Kyle’s Inkbox-Brush Beauty brush set to 25% Smoothing in the Options Bar for sketching. (If you do not know where to find Kyle’s free brushes for Photoshop (and Fresco), open the Brushes Panel and click on the upper right hamburger icon drop-down menu – go to Get More Brushes – log in if needed. There you will find for free all of his over 1000 brushes in different sets for download.) Brush Beauty actually worked pretty good so it was used as the sketch brush for all my images (saved it as a preset brush variation). After sketch layer is finished, the Lasso Tool was used to select the whole dog – could use any accurate form of selection. The dominant color of the dog, as shown in my rendition of his demo Greyhound dog below which used white, was painted inside the selection using his Spring 2022 set’s Chef Maltese brush – it adds great texture (and Kyle says to adjust the Brush Settings Panel Color Dynamics Brightness Jitter slider for even more texture)! For the other paint and detail layers, be sure to clip New Layer (ALT+click between your New Layer and the solid paint-filled dog layer) so paint strokes do not go outside the edges when adding the new paint colors. The Woodchop Joey brush (really like this brush for the dog coats) was used to paint in the darker tones and pinks in the Greyhound below. The brush was set to 50 pixels (and saved as a brush variation preset) and used as a detail brush on some areas. Woodchop Joey was also used on the Bulldog above. The shadow areas on the Bulldog used the Megapack->Kyle’s Drawing Box->Kyle’s Drawing Box- Graphite-Control 2 brush with tones of gray. The Spring 2022 set’s Suavy Inky brush was selected for both of these dogs to paint in the dark details. The Beagle used the Chef Maltese brush for painting the dog selection in white, Kyle’s Real Watercolor set’s Warmazing Extra Rough brush for the color areas, and Suavy Inky for details, .

As you can see, pretty much the same brushes for these smoother haired dogs. All the images are shown without the original rough draft layer showing. Had to put up an image of my darling Springer Spaniel I had for many years. Pretty much the same process – white used to paint in the dog selection using Chef Maltese brush, and the dark areas used the Woodchop Joey brush at both large and small sizes. Kyle’s Megapack->Paintbrush->Kyle’s Paintbrush-Bristly Fat Flex was used on her face and a small dotted hair brush to get the hairy edges on the dog coat.

Kyle made a white poodle in his video. He used a brush from his Spring 2020 set called the Bouquet 1 brush which created the great big puffs of hair, and by sizing the brush down gives the smaller puffs. My Poodle used Woodchop Joey for the legs and some of the browner colors in the face. Also his Megapack->Drawing Box->Kyle’s Drawing Box-Pastella Brush was used to fill out the hair.

For the Husky Dog the brushes he suggested using were Kyle’s Paintbox-Bristly Fat Flex brush and Megapack->Drawing Box->Kyle’s Drawing Box-Conte Crayon – he did not get this dog done but I finished mine. The drawing below is my rendition of Kyle’s Sheep Dog that followed his video instructions – not exactly original but I liked the way he turned out. Kyle used a really odd brush called Geobot 1 from the Spring 2022 set – all drawn on one layer (over the dog selection, lock the transparency of the layer (the \ key or press the first icon next to Lock in the Layers Panel) and paint with this brush, just sized down the brush for the face area. Can turn on and off the transparency of layer to get the correct edges. If using a tablet, use lighter pressure along the edges and try using different sizes on different parts of the dog.

For more brush choices try downloading from DeviantArt this free set of brushes by Coyotemange called Wildlife Texture Brushes – they are great for painting in missing areas of fur on all kinds of animals and birds. By making them smaller, nice sharp edges can be made. I have used these brushes for all kinds of animal images – by adjusting the color dynamics, size, angle, etc., almost every kind of fur can be created. And be sure to save any variations you like as new brushes by clicking on the plus icon at bottom of Brushes Panel. Also, when finished with your drawings, save the Dog Group as a set by highlighting your dog brushes in the Brushes Panel; then go up the hamburger icon drop-down menu again and choose Export Selected Brushes option to copy the Dog Group brushes as a set to your computer in case you accidentally delete it.

Well I hope you enjoyed this blog – it was so much fun to do and pretty easy. Give it a try even if you are not the greatest drawer. Especially fun if you like dogs which I do. It felt good to write about something different from the Photoshop Generative Fill AI feature! Have a good week!…..Digital Lady Syd

Related Digital Lady Syd Blogs:

Drawing Head Images from Random Brushes

A Little Aaron Blaise Digital Drawing Practice

How to Create a Fun Cartoon