How To Draw Fur With Pencil

This tutorial describes the techniques I utilize to create realistic fur texture in graphite pencil. To make your ain drawings you will need paper (personal preference is key, and then experiment until you observe your favorite) and a full drawing set of art quality graphite pencils. My two favorite brands are Staedtler Mars Lumograph, Derwent Graphic, and Derwent Sketching. I strongly recommend against Faber-Castell's colored pencils, equally I have always establish them to be grainy and incapable of laying down graphite smoothly.

In this illustration I predominantly used 3B and 5B pencils, due to the pocket-size size of the drawing. The aforementioned technique can exist used with a larger range of pencils, and on a large piece I will use everything from HB to 6B. Each has a different hardness and tone, allowing the artist to create shading with tremendous depth and particular.

Reference Picture show "Don't Cry Wolf" by dudestock of deviantArt

Reference Motion picture "Don't weep Wolf" by dudestock of DeviantArt: http://fav.me/dr9b1n

How to Draw Fur with Graphite Pencil From a Reference Photo, by Sidney Eileen — Sketch the Basic Lines

Sketch the basic lines

Whether or not I get-go with a reference photo, I always draw an outline sketch of the subject and background (if any). I attempt to give the overall outlines of form, the locations of important details like eyes, nose, ears, feet, etc., and provide an impression of fur contour, management, and texture. I too endeavour to give myself an idea of where color and shading transitions occur, although I am not altogether precise at this stage. Many of the internal lines will move as I begin to draw the slice.

Begin the Outset Layer of Shading

When I am working in pencil I always kickoff with the optics and face of the subject. If a drawing has more than subject, I get-go with either the dominant or the virtually key subject on the newspaper. It is very of import for me to plan out the catamenia of the drawing at this stage and then I don't cease upwardly smearing the art with my mitt afterward. I have found that I am unable to continue a steady hand unless information technology is in straight contact with the drawing surface, so I tend to work in a circular pattern around the paper out from the face up. On a small piece like this one (5"x7"), I worked from the head, down the front, then to the right since I am right-handed.

I drew in the eyes kickoff, with full detail, and the olfactory organ, both with a 5B pencil. I then switched to a 3B pencil and lightly drew in the base shading for the face. This layer of shading should exist about the aforementioned lightness as the lightest tones in whatever given office of the texture. Expect at the highlights of the fur texture, and draw in that shade. If y'all notice that you cannot describe as lightly as the highlights, switch to a harder pencil for your get-go layer (B or HB). Be sure to draw the pencil strokes in the direction the fur flows. These strokes volition commonly bear witness through in the concluding moving-picture show, and assist to define the overall texture of the fur. Stroke length is not of import at this stage unless this layer of shading will be the tiptop layer in the last drawing.

Beginning Detail Layer

Later on creating the base shading I continued with the 3B pencil. I created the texture in the fur past applying a bit more pressure and using more deliberate strokes. When adding detail, go on the pencil as sharp every bit possible, and keep your stoke lengths to almost equivalent of what is visible in the reference drawing. Since I am notwithstanding working in the 3B pencil, but with more than pressure, these the median shading strokes. More pressure creates darkness, merely not depth. The darkest areas and depth will exist added over this.

At this stage, some of the shading areas created in the commencement layer tin can withal exist changed. I decided at this bespeak that the ears looked a little bit small, so I extended the shading areas and moved the placement of some of the details.

Second Detail Layer

After filling in the median shading details I switch to a 5B pencil. On larger pieces, I will utilise other harnesses than just 3B and 5B, but I have institute that with small-scale drawings such details are completely lost. When learning, these two pencils on a minor drawing should provide enough depth to develop understanding of the technique.

I gently added a small amount of shading to areas that looked a fleck flat, only weren't necessarily supposed to be night. Each hardness of pencil has a different tone to it, and even a light application can provide a depth that a single pencil cannot. Whatever two pencils drawn to the same darkness will accept a different quality. I did this on the top of the nose and around the eyes and muzzle.

As with the first detail layer, keep your pencil equally sharp equally possible, and restrict your stroke lengths to what you run across in the reference cloth. Always brand your strokes in the management of the fur growth.

Base Shading in the Next Region

After filling in the shading details on the face, I switched back to a 3B pencil. Many of the areas forth the back of the head, effectually the neck, and the front legs take bright white for the base color, and so in those regions I used the 3B pencil as the outset particular layer, using the base color of the newspaper for the base shade. When I saw areas that didn't need that white brightness but besides did non need full shading, I very lightly rubbed the pencil stokes with my finger tip. This slightly blurred the graphite, creating a very gentle, slightly off-white base tone. If you adopt, you can also use a blending stump for this purpose.

Shading Details

Every bit before, I went over the base shading with detail strokes in a 3B pencil, and so the 5B pencil. In this area I switched off between the 2, moving effectually the entire region adding more than details. I built up the details, making them darker and darker until they matched the reference drawing.

In the region around the elbow where the fur is strongly foreshortened, I used extremely short contrasting night strokes to create the impression that the fur is both rather brusque and pointing toward the viewer. A quick succession of compact, nighttime ticks were all that was required. In the example of foreshortened fur, I usually describe the darkest shade immediately after the base shade and so fill up in whatsoever median shades. The shadows are so curt that at that place is a lot of contrast.

I filled in the pads of the feet with a 6B pencil so they would be as nighttime as possible.

Next Regions

Continuing with the same techniques, I movement on to the details of the trunk region, and add base shading to the rear legs and tail.

Last Region

This epitome shows median shading details on the rear legs and tail, with some of the darker shading details to the very correct of the drawing. By repeated the techniques shown in each area of your drawing, you can create a realistically textured drawing of whatever furry creature.