How to draw a pug?
Post Date:
December 7, 2023
(Date Last Modified: November 13, 2025)
A pug’s compact proportions and distinctive facial folds offer clear visual cues that guide a stepwise drawing process.
Materials and workspace
Set up a comfortable, well-lit area with room to rest your arm and a clear view of reference photos. Keep commonly used tools within easy reach to maintain flow while sketching.
- Paper: a 9 x 12 inch (22.9 x 30.5 cm) sketch pad for figure and head studies [1].
- Pencils: an HB for construction, a 2B for midtones, and a 4B for deeper shading [2].
- Erasers and blending tools: a kneaded eraser plus a vinyl eraser are useful for both lifting graphite and cleaning edges.
Position your lamp to reduce glare and create soft, directional light; a steady workspace light around 500 lux (≈46.5 foot-candles) helps evaluate values consistently [3].
If working digitally, use a tablet with a surface roughly 8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm) for compact poses, and prepare brushes that mimic pencil pressure for linework and short, dense fur strokes.
Observing pug anatomy and references
Before drawing, study photos that show the pug from multiple angles: front, three-quarter, profile, and a relaxed standing or sitting pose. Good references reveal how wrinkles, eyes, and tail read in different lights.
Place the eyes approximately one-third of the way down the skull from the top of the forehead toward the muzzle on frontal or three-quarter portraits [4], and confirm placement across side views for consistency.
Note that the famous facial folds tend to form three primary horizontal planes when viewed from straight on, with overlapping skin between the forehead, nasal stop, and muzzle [5]; capture how those planes create shadow bands.
Collect at least three clear, varied photos that differ in pose and lighting so you can cross-check proportions and avoid copying a single foreshortened view that might mislead head-to-body relationships.
Basic shapes and proportions
Begin with simple geometric blocks to establish proportion and gesture rather than aiming for detail. A few steady construction marks will keep the pose accurate as you refine forms.
Block the skull as a circle occupying about one-third of the total figure height when drawing a seated or standing pug from a three-quarter view [1], then place an oval in front of that circle for the short muzzle.
Map limb anchors with short, vertical lines: pugs have compact leg lengths relative to torso height, so mark knees and paws close to the body mass and avoid long limb extensions.
Use a horizontal guideline across the skull circle to establish eye placement, and a vertical centerline for nose and mouth alignment; these guides keep bilateral features symmetrical while you build forms.
Constructing the head and skull
Develop the head’s planes to support facial features: define the rounded forehead plane, the short muzzle projection, and the lower jawline as a flattened curve that tucks under the muzzle.
Position ears low and lateral on the skull, often starting at the rim of the skull circle and angling them to follow the skull plane; pug ears are small and can be drawn as soft triangles or rounded flaps depending on pose.
Map forehead wrinkles as overlapping bands that wrap from one temple to the other; drawing the skull planes first makes wrinkle placement feel natural and helps retain volume beneath folds.
Drawing the facial features
Eyes in pugs are large and rounded; block them as dark ovals with a consistent light reflection to read wetness and curvature, then indicate a secondary highlight for a believable glossy surface.
Place the nose at the end of the muzzle oval and simplify the nostrils as two dark crescents that sit close together; subtle shading under the nose helps sell its short projection.
The mouth line is shallow and often hidden under jowls; draw a light crease at the corner of the muzzle and let small shadow masses suggest jowls and hanging skin rather than hard outlines.
Body, limbs, and tail
Simplify the chest and ribcage as a short, barrel-like oval that connects to the head via a short neck; the torso length is compact and sits over stout hips and shoulders.
Short, muscular legs can be indicated with two tapered cylinders per limb, anchored close to the torso; paws are small and round with slight toe separation suggested by short strokes.
The tail attaches at the rump and typically curls into a single tight loop or a double curl; placement is just above the hip line and should align with the spine curve for a natural look.
Skin folds, fur texture, and markings
Map the primary skin folds across the forehead and muzzle by drawing overlapping curved bands that follow skull geometry; let the deepest fold catch the darkest shadow and the outer bands read as midtones.
For the short, smooth coat, use short, directional strokes that follow underlying muscles and skin — strokes shorter than 1/8 inch (≈3 mm) work well with graphite or digital brushes to suggest a smooth coat.
Observe common pug mask and saddle markings in references; mark the darker mask around eyes and muzzle early and adjust values so markings sit within the established head planes.
Shading, lighting, and creating depth
Decide on a single primary light source and render cast shadows consistently; deep folds will produce narrow, high-contrast shadows while rounded cheeks and forehead planes will have broader midtone gradients.
Use midtones as the foundation, reserve the darkest darks for nostrils, mouth recesses, and the deepest wrinkle creases, and place small bright highlights on the eye and nose to suggest moisture and curvature.
Reflected light on the underside of the muzzle and chin can separate planes subtly and prevent the face from reading flat; keep reflected values lower than direct midtones to maintain form.
Linework, cleanup, and presentation
Refine line weight to suggest form: heavier lines where the head overlaps torso or where deep shadow falls, lighter lines on top planes and soft fur edges.
Remove construction lines selectively with a kneaded eraser or by masking on a digital layer, keeping enough construction echoes to preserve lively gesture rather than over-cleaning into stiffness.
For presentation, flatten the drawing onto a neutral background, photograph or scan at 300 dpi, and prepare separate layers if coloring digitally so the linework remains crisp while you add color and texture.
| Item | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Paper | 9 x 12 in (22.9 x 30.5 cm) | Heavyweight sketch paper for repeated erasing [1] |
| Pencils | HB, 2B, 4B | Range from construction to deep shading [2] |
| Erasers | Kneaded and vinyl | Kneaded for soft lifts, vinyl for crisp edges |
| Lighting | Approx. 500 lux | Consistent, directional lighting aids value decisions [3] |
Practice drills and timed studies
Build observational speed with short exercises that force you to capture proportion and gesture first. Try 3 quick thumbnails at 2 minutes each to prioritize silhouette, then follow with 1 medium study at 10 minutes that focuses on head placement and major folds [6]. After these, complete a single focused head study lasting 20 to 30 minutes to develop wrinkle mapping and value transitions [7].
Troubleshooting common errors
If the eyes look too wide-set, check your horizontal eye guideline and reduce the interocular distance by about one-quarter of an eye width until the proportions read correctly; make this adjustment while comparing a frontal and three-quarter reference to avoid over-correction [8]. When wrinkles flatten the face, re-establish underlying planes with light contour lines and restore midtone gradients over 2–3 passes rather than trying to darken in a single stroke [6].
Color, finishing, and presentation tips
For color work, sample a neutral midtone first and build local color in translucent layers; start with a base layer at 25–40% opacity and increase opacity in successive passes to avoid muddying highlights [9]. When adding sheen to the nose and eyes, use a pinpoint highlight no larger than 1–2 mm in diameter to keep reflections believable and avoid overpowering the facial plane [7].
File preparation and reproduction
Scan or photograph finished linework at 300 dpi for print-quality reproduction and at 150 dpi for standard web display; save a master TIFF at 300 dpi and export progressive JPEGs or PNGs for online use [9]. When photographing a drawing, place the paper flat under diffuse light and use a tripod to keep the camera steady; shoot at the sensor’s native ISO and use a shutter speed of 1/125 sec or faster to avoid motion blur when handheld [6].
Where to find references and study material
Collect diverse poses from institutional photo archives and museums that offer high-resolution animal studies; aim to assemble at least 20 quality images covering multiple angles and lighting situations to build a varied reference library [8]. Use museum and public domain collections to find anatomical photos that show musculature and skin overlap clearly, and group images by pose so you can compare how the same fold behaves in different positions [6].
Continued study and critique
Make a practice schedule that repeats focused head studies twice per week and full-figure studies once per week for progressive improvement; many educators recommend maintaining consistent practice over intervals of 8–12 weeks to see measurable gains in proportion and rendering accuracy [7]. Pair your work with occasional critiques from peers or instructors and document revisions so each drawing cycle yields concrete corrections to proportions, value handling, or texture work.
Sources
