Basic Digital Fur Tutorial

This is a basic fur tutorial. I wasn't going for hyper realism or anything, and it is meant for people who don't know where to start with fur and need to be pointed in the right direction.

This fur tutorial was created in oc, however I did it in a way which makes it possible to be used in most digital painting programs.

Step one: Create a basic outline for your creature. I suggest filling your line art with a flat color first, drawing fur without a base color is pretty difficult. In my case I used brown. (Gosh I'm so creative) this is a basic tutorial remember, so I'm not going to get all wacky with spots and the like.

I drew a couple of lines around the eyes. This helps me indicate fur direction and how thick the fur is going to be. This is very important if you want good looking fur. No animal has fur that points in random directions!

Step two: Now we start drawing the fur... Darker colors are best, in this case dark brown, and black is also good if you set it at a low opacity, it all depends on what kind of color scheme you are going for. The brush size is just a 1 px using the pen tool. I didn't cheat and use my pressure sensitive tablet, although rest assured, that does make it easier. Yes, even you mouse people can make fur! Notice the direction of the 'hairs'.

Step three: Oh god my arm! Sorry, it is really hard to cheat on this step. Just keep brushing. Use long strokes for longer fur, shorter strokes for short fur. It is pretty simple really.

Step four: Here is where things get a bit easier. Take out the airbrush and make sure it is at low opacity. Opacity is very important when working on fur or hair because if you want it to look good it requires a delicate touch. I used a darker brown/black for my shading. See? Isn't it looking better already? Darken where the fur overlaps, or where other extensions darken the area (like the eyebrow)

Step five: Oh god, more monotonous linework. Fur highlights tend to look a lot better when you use a 1 px brush instead of an airbrush. Basically, I tried to highlight where it wasn't too dark. You just have to play it by ear.

Step six: Fur tends to look better in layers. I noticed the highlights were too stark, and blended them into the fur using the blur tool. Sorry guys, more linework ahead!

Step 7: This time I used a black 1 px brush, bringing out the detail even further. And I fixed the eye, cuz it looks better that way.

Step 8: More highlights! Ah, doesn't that look nice? Time consuming yes, but I think the results are worth it.

Step 9: Not necessary, but I put in some short red haired stripes in for your enjoyment using the same steps as above, only with no airbrushing.

Hope this helps! Feel free to give me any suggestions on how to improve this tutorial!