How to Draw an English Bulldog

The English bulldog makes an amazing family pet. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to draw an English bulldog sitting down. Follow these easy steps and you’ll have a cute bulldog drawing in no time!

As the name suggests, the English bulldog originates from England. Traditionally, bulldogs were used in the sport of bull-baiting, where the dog would chase a bull around town for entertainment purposes. This was a popular sport between the 12th and 13th centuries. Now, English bulldogs make superb family pets. Their gentle nature and little need for exercise make them one of the least maintenance dogs to have. Now that you know some interesting English bulldog facts, let’s get on with the tutorial! 

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to draw an English bulldog sitting down from a reference photograph.

What You’ll Need:

• A reference photo of an English Bulldog
• Paper
• Light Pencil (Ideally a 4H Pencil)
• Dark pencil (Ideally a 6B Pencil)
• Eraser

How to Draw an English Bulldog

Before we begin, find a cute picture of a bulldog. We’re going to use this cute photo of an English bulldog sitting on some grass as our reference photo.

Step 1:

Start by drawing a circle. Like with all our dog drawing tutorials, we always start with a rough circle. And then draw on a reference grid for positioning our bulldog’s facial features.

Step 2:

Draw a straight line. This will mark the ground and make it easier to draw our English bulldog sitting down.

Step 3:

Draw a smaller circle at the bottom. This smaller circle represents your bulldog’s bottom.

Step 4:

Draw a curved line linking the bottom and head. Your English bulldog already looks like it’s sitting down!

Step 5:

Add another curved line for the front leg. Your drawing is starting to look like a silhouette of a cute English bulldog.

Step 6:

Put in two eyes and a heart-shaped nose. The eyes are two beady oval shapes, and the nose is an upside-down heart shape. Remember to use your reference grid to position your bulldog’s eyes and nose correctly.

Step 7:

Sketch in a curvy-looking triangle for the mouth. An English bulldog’s mouth is quite droopy like a Saint Bernard’s face. A curvy triangle coming slightly off the face is an easy way to start drawing your bulldog’s mouth.

Step 8:

Draw in a semi-circle for the top of the nose. An English bulldog’s face and body is full of wrinkles and curves. Simple, short lines are a great way to achieve this effect.

Step 9:

Add a few more wrinkle lines above the nose. Keep the wrinkles on the face going with another semi-circle and rough lines. We even defined the eyes slightly to make them look a little sad.

Step 10:

Draw two semi-circles for the ears. Create some round, teddy bear-like ears for your bulldog’s face.

Step 11:

Define the front leg. Add an extra rough line to create the front leg of your dog. The more imperfect and wrinkly the line, the better for your English bulldog drawing.

Step 12:

Draw a curve for the belly. English bulldogs are quite chubby-looking dogs, so their belly is quite outwards, especially when sitting down.

Step 13:

Sketch the back leg. Remember this bulldog is sitting down, so roughly sketch a leg with a paw positioned horizontally across the belly:

Step 14:

Add in some extra wrinkles. Draw in some extra lines on the body and lower part of the face to make your English bulldog’s skin look droopy.

Step 15:

Draw in even more wrinkles. This time, focus on the upper part of the face and the eyebrows. Define the overall face through light sketches of wrinkles in random places. You can then work on defining your English bulldog’s ears by making them look more pointed.

Step 16:

Sketch in the grass. Right now, your bulldog looks like he/she is stuck in some cement. We need to draw them some grass, to make it look like he/she is sitting down and not stuck in something. You can also add some extra details here, like nostrils for your bulldog’s nose.

Step 17:

Outline your drawing with a dark pencil. Grab your 6B, dark pencil and start defining your bulldog’s shape, wrinkles and facial features. At this point, you can also rub out any extra lines you drew earlier as reference points.

Step 18:

Add in the finishing touches. Lightly sketch in some fur for your English bulldog and shade in any areas of the body or face, if you like.

Voila! Your gorgeous English bulldog drawing is done! And my, what a cute bulldog he or she is. Now that you know how to draw an English bulldog sitting, why not try your hand at drawing a realistic husky in the snow?