Ladybug Puppy

finished picture of puppy with ladybug on nose

It’s been a sec since I’ve done an art! So one evening last week I took a few hours to draw this.

A photo of a small black puppy, looks long-haired dachshund-ish, looking at the camera with a red ladybug with one spot resting on its nose

Wait, you don’t believe I drew that? How dare you doubt my word.
Well anyway yeah, I just ran across it on the internet and loved the picture. How could you not? I can’t find an attribution or an original; this has been floating around in many circles since at least 2018. If anyone does know the original, please let me know! I’d love to see how this adorable pupper grew up.

Anyway, I wanted to draw them so I broke out my drawing platform- I still work in Krita. Since I was only giving myself a limited amount of time, I took the quick method for proportions (aka cheating)…

Same picture with some black lines drawn around the outlines of the puppy and ladybug

and traced it.

Here’s how it looks without the background:

The photo has been removed, just the black outlines of the puppy and the ladybug remain.

The next step was to add some flat colors. Drawing in black is a little tricky when outlining also in black; I have to compromise with dark gray.

Outline has been colored in. The puppy is in dark gray and the eyes are deep brown with white highlights. The ladybug is red with white eyes and one black spot on its back.

I’ll admit that the nose and eyes aren’t exactly flats. Sorry, I got ahead of myself. When that was done, I turned to the background. As it’s not the key point and is just there to make the central figure slightly less alone, I used some textured paintbrushes to go a little quickly.

The background has filled in with pavement-coloration on the lower-right and grass on the upper-left, roughly diagonally bisected.

Next step is shading. Shading quickly is something I’ve been trying to work on. Some people accomplish amazing shading with single shades and single swoops but I hold on to that too tightly often. It’s something I’m working on. So that’s what we’re going to see in the next few.

Puppy has been given shading.

I did blend it in here. The last one is my final of this pupper. To heighten the shade, we bring in some highlights. Here it is!

Shading and highlights added to puppy

I feathered the shading to be more like fur. Why? I can’t get over making them just a little realistic still. I feel a little stuck in a limbo between illustrative outlines and wanting realism. But enough of that, we’re here for puppies and ladybugs.

I did do one more picture; this is me attempting a chibi style. I got a book about drawing chibi animals (mythic ones anyway) because I like the simple shapes that they use (and yeah, they’re cute). I haven’t cracked the book in a bit or tried a chibi in a bit so this is a “see how well I can do running on memory” drawing.

All told, while there are some things I do think I did well in the chibi, I prefer the shape and looks of the original better.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed a little journey through making a picture with me.

Intellectual Property of Elizabeth Doman
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