I did this sketch of my old dog last night. My scanner ruined it. Sorry. DX

PICTURE:
http://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f373/TigerOfNight/?action=view&current=bb003.jpg

SKETCH:
http://morgain--rox.deviantart.com/art/Dog-Sketch-127750193

Any comments help. I'm on a quest to become a more serious artist, and this was my first wave of insparation. So, hope you like it.

If you are planning to become more serious with art, learn the theory. Anatomy, colour theory, symbolism, shapes, types of media, different techniques, tone, shading effects... There's alot to learn. From what I can see in that picture, you have not considered learning any of those things.

Ahh everyone hates scanners. No worries. c:

 From what I see here, you've put in a lot of effort. And, even though there are many flaws in this art, effort does count. It shows you love what you do and want to improve. Effort = Good start.

Consider the pose the dog is in. One paw is visable but the other seems to be missing. The pose looks really uncomfortable for the poor puppy.The face structure is good but needs some work. The eye positions seem to be off. I love how you've drawn the paw though, you seem to have that down. I was never able to draw dog paws and usually just skipped them. xDD

 What bothers me most are the ears. You sure went over those in a hurry. They're 2D and out of proportion. They're sitting wrong on the head too. Try looking at some pictures and remember that the ears are as 3 dimensional as the rest of the dog. Draw the insides, add fur, and shade to make them look 3D.

Keep practicing, I'd love to see you improve~! Cheers!

Practice is not enough in my opinion. In chemistry lessons, do you just do practicals? How much do you learn from mearly doing practicals? There many ways to improve and get artistic knowledge in your head; participate in workshops, buy books and learn anatomy (Gray's anatomy is a good one), take lots of photos as they are essential for reference and read tons of books on technical stuffs for art (as mentioned in my long list above). But what I consider the most important thing would be experimenting and discovering your style.

Even though mearly practicing is not going to get you anywhere, practice is key. For example, when you read books about anatomy, sketch out the particular part of the body you are observing on a piece of paper. Whenever you learning any aristic thing, practice and attempt the thing you are learning. Practice everyday, makinga gazillion sketches on a piece of paper and using loads of paper. One piece per day is not good enough. Your paper should look like this (not my art, I just got a random thing off dA). As you can see, there are lot's of experimentations of a single subject, not much time was spent on each sketch.

http://imaginism.deviantart.com/art/Sea-Dragon-design-exploration-127680826

Now that I've said what I think is a good way to learn, here is what I think about your sketch:

Pose and junk- listen to WretchedHelios

The head doesn't look right at all, it's slanted (if the head was a square, this would be a rhombus). You should see the shoulder of the other leg. From what I can see in your picture, it's supposed to be a realism piece.

What my rules are for realism pieces (I don't do them often though):

• Use several types of pencils (preferably B-6B)
• Don't use lines to define shapes, use shading and tone and stuff.
• Use a rubber, not for just correcting mistakes, but for adding highlights
• Use several pictures for reference.

Now scribbling on it like how my ex art teacher (I don't take I/GCSE art), Mr. P would. Here's what I think you did horribly wrong by using LINES to define the shapes and next to it, how I would shade it (I only did a little bit). I used photoshop to do that, so it looks funny.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg100/HappyVeggies/dogajkshdkajshdkaj.png

Wow. THanks alot for the tips and support.

Ping, that last pis realy helps. I've seen people use that kind of method, but I've never had somebody to teach me where to put them and how much was truely enough. I'm going to use that as a refferancewhen I practice. I think it might help. Thanks a ton!

Wretched, It took me a long time to work on paws. Ears are now the hardest. Mostly, for simple practice, I like to try to mimick a picture, which I will post in an edit to the first post.

Katie, Thanks for the simple support. It gives you that little boost every now and again.

Thanks to all of you. I cannot express how much your help means to me.