- Draw a collar and upside down U shape.
- Add two ears on top.
- Draw the face and dog tag. Erase inside ears.
- Draw one front leg.
- Add the other front leg.
- Draw the back leg.
- Finish the back leg and tail.
- Add a background and dog house.
- Trace with a marker and color.
Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash
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Written by
Julie Jones
Julie Jones is a writer who attended the University of Paris I—Sorbonne, France.
Julie Jones
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Table of Contents
Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, oil painting by Giacomo Balla that was completed in 1912. It is an iconic Futurist painting.
Born in Turin, Balla was the son of an industrial chemist. After studying music in his childhood, he switched to visual art and was a student at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin. He also attended classes at the University of Turin taught by Cesare Lombroso, a criminologist. Balla moved to Rome and worked as an illustrator and caricaturist, and he began to find success as a painter.
Influenced by the writings of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Balla adopted the Futurist aesthetic, and he was a signatory to La pittura futurista: Manifesto tecnico (“Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto”) in 1910, along with Umberto Boccioni, Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carrà, and Gino Severini. These artists fought for a contemporary art form that would challenge traditional painting and its conventions, and the work they created expressed what they considered to be the unprecedented speed and dynamism of their technology-driven, industrial era.
Balla pursued his most important Futurist experiments during the 1910s. He studied the optical possibilities revealed by the photo-scientific research into the representation of time led by Étienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard Muybridge. The work of Marey and Muybridge led Balla and other Futurists to create what they described as the first dynamic painted analysis of form in movement. Photographic influence can be seen in Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, which is one of Balla’s most famous works. The repetition of lines in Balla’s representation of the dog’s legs, tail, and ears crisply conveys the action of the dog walking in the street. This painting presaged Balla’s future work, which included vibrant abstract compositions depicting movement and speed.
Drawing of a Dog
There are lots of good reasons to learn how to draw a dog. In addition to being ‘man’s best friend’, they are about as intelligent as a two-year-old, and can learn about a hundred words and gestures. One recent study showed that some very gifted dogs can even learn as many as 12 new words per week – and usually still remember them after a two-month lapse.
When it comes to drawing a dog, front views are nice, and they make for easy symmetrical drawings, but sometimes you want to see a bit of the side too. This tutorial will help students draw a dog with a simple face and slightly turned body. It makes the dog look a bit more active, and allows room to really showcase the tail too.
Save this tutorial for your younger elementary students that are ready to draw a dog with a little more detail. The floppy ears and legs that are more than just straight lines are easy to do, and look a lot more like the shapes they can see on real dogs around them.
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 an upside down U shape in the top left corner. It’s easy to do when students can see where those two guides cross.
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.
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DRAW & LEARN
In the process of creating your artwork, you will also learn about the Elements and Principles of Design, pets and get to do some cool science and writing activities. Follow this step-by-step tutorial video here and have fun drawing your own pet.
When you finish, don’t forget to take pictures of your artwork and share your amazing creative masterpiece with us on Twitter.
ART SUPPLIES
MIXED MEDIA TECHNIQUE
This a technique that many artists use, and it is precisely the result of using more than one medium or material. Play safe and have fun!
Check out Crayola Art Supplies »
INSTRUCTIONS
Start off by sketching geometric and organic shapes. Then move one to adding details and color. If you wish, erase the original guiding or sketching lines. using the Elements and Principles of Design listed below, go ahead and have fun drawing and coloring.
Elements: Line, Shape, Space, Color, Form, Texture, Value. Principles: Balance, Unity, Variety, Emphasis, Movement, Pattern, Proportion.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS & PROCESS
Start off by sketching geometric and organic shapes. Then move on to adding details and color. If you wish, erase the original guiding or sketching lines. Using the Elements and Principles of Design go ahead and have fun drawing and coloring.
Step 1. Paper Orientation: Place the paper in the landscape position.
Step 2. Trace Geometric Shapes: Use a marker to trace geometric shapes to properly position the subject (foreground) within the available space (background).
Step 3. Sketch with Organic Shapes: Use organic shapes to add forms and areas that better resemble the subject we are going to draw and paint about.
Step 3. If Necessary, Erase and Sketch Again: Use an eraser to carefully eliminate lines that are no longer necessary or lines that are not properly representing the subject matter. Softly sketch again or retrace until you are happy with the structure or basic forms and shapes that will later need to be colored or painted.
Step 4. Darken Up: Use darker lines or color to identify the shapes and forms that better represent the subject matter.
Step 5. Coloring or Painting: Use your desired art materials or supplies to begin coloring or painting the different areas. Make sure you use strokes that go along with the anatomical sections of the subject and the background. Add mid tone values first, then dark tone shades. Highlights will always be the last set of tones, value and shades that you will add to any section.
