Below you’ll find an easy step-by-step tutorial for how to draw a Cartoon Dog and a Cartoon Dog Coloring Page. Oversized eyes and paws add a fun and silly look.

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A drawing of a Cartoon Dog, made with the help of an easy step by step tutorial.

What does it take to turn a regular dog into a cartoon dog drawing? Not a whole lot.

This dog has the average head shape, and floppy ears, four paws and a tail. The key is just to make some things extra big and some things extra small.

This tutorial will show how to draw the dog’s eyes as the big, googly kind and the paws are really oversized too. The mouth, however is small in comparison, and the ears just normal size.

And that, my friend, is cartoon drawing in a nutshell. Exaggerate the features of whatever you are drawing, keep them super simple, and above all, have fun.

Getting Started with Drawing Guides

The best way to get students off to a good start to any drawing lesson is to show them how to use guides as a reference point.

You may have noticed that all of the tutorials on this website have a dashed vertical line and horizontal line running through the center of each step. If students make their own centered lines on their own paper, before drawing, they will have an easy reference to follow.

For instance, as seen in Step 1 below, this sketch starts with a head and collar shape that sits on the center line of the paper. It’s important that head is drawn nice and big so there is plenty of room for the goofy eyes and floppy ears.

When students get their drawing off to a good start, there’s a better chance of them feeling successful by the time they are done. Drawing skills are all about getting the size and placement of lines on paper. Having some visual reference point to get started, will always help anyone learn how to be a little more accurate.

So does that mean students need to get out a ruler to draw a big line down the center of their paper before they start? No, that will most likely be hard to erase and distract from any finished art. Instead, they simply fold the sheet of paper in half both ways, make a crease, and unfold. The beauty is that by the time the drawing is done and colored in, the creases will disappear.

And now, on to the cartoon dog drawing project.