The Fur Tutorial for Animals

Fur Tutorial:

We are going to talk about how to draw fur with graphite pencil.

Probably the best way to start when dealing with fur or hair in art is working with color, which brings together of color combinations of different animals.

But I want you to begin with the ground work firstly.....

As you would already know that the wolf  has long hair.

Would I say it is easier to draw than short fur?   Not really. Each fur length has its own different techniques. And in each technique, you are trying to achieve a specific look. And with short hair comes the added extras like sheen and gloss.

I have selected a photo of a couple of wolves below in this fur tutorial. Have a look how I have sketched in directional lines for you to follow.

Looks confusing doesn't it. Follow the different lines and distinguish their directions to the shape of the wolves fur. Now this rule is not fixed, in fact every time the wolf moves the fur will also change. What you need to firstly get in mind is the major directions that the fur follows.

When you start off with, you will need a rough drawing of your wolf, and then I want you to sketch in the major directions that that the fur follows.

Don't go straight into trying to draw in the fur around its eyes and so forth... because with the smaller areas and crevices that you need to deal with.

As fur starts to become smoother, and more condense. I feel that its best to get that basic fur drawn in first before you move onto the more difficult areas.

You might be feeling that this is not so easy as it seems, and some-what frustrating. Indeed you are not the only one that feels this way.

Learning to draw fur or hair is not that easy. It is something you need to practice at.

In fact ; more than other areas in art.

"By the way, if you want to know more hints and tricks in getting fur to look natural, my subscribers get these exclusively, in my free newsletter "pet art newsletter" . Come and join us.

In such lessons such as this fur tutorial, you need to practice your strokes on a piece of extra paper again and again, till you find that your lines are becoming more fluent and following a natural line. This will also help you when drawing in backgrounds like grass for example.

You can see by this diagram here, that there are a few different ways of tackling fur.

These diagrams are more a fur tutorial guide for you in fur direction, and how you can draw these different directions with strokes of your pencil, creating clumped up thicker fur to the finer fur.

Again, it just takes practice, use different pressures with your pencil to bring out different tones from dark to light.

When finishing off a stroke, begin to lift your pencil off the paper so that it gives a nice finish to the end of the fur. Too harsh and thick lines will loose that natural look.

In nature there are no straight lines; his is a man made invention. So the same goes with all art, stay natural and fluent in your work and it will blend with itself.

Here I have a drawing of a howling wolf , as I think its a good example of seeing how the directions of fur blend with each other overall, and how the use of the white paper is used to portray the lighter areas of where the fur would otherwise be.

In this fur tutorial, there are different degrees of just how much detail you can put into your subject.

Having had a look at this drawing, you can see that the use of white paper has taken up many areas of the wolfs body, with the use of a bit of smudging to soften up some of the wolf's fur.

These are some choices that you can work with and find out what best suits you.

Remember what I said about finding your where your point of light is coming from in a drawing? Can you see it in this drawing?

You might be a little confused with this sketch; reason being that if you choose to work with snow.

Snow reflects light upwards, so the pointing position of light in this scene will also be reflected up from the ground.

This is why you are getting a few different directions of light reflected on the wolf.

'To draw does not simply mean to reproduce contours; the drawing does
not simply consist in the idea: the drawing is even the expression, the
interior form, the plan, the model. Look what remains after that! The
drawing is three fourths and a half of what constitutes painting. If I had
to put a sign over my door [to the atelier], I would write: School of
drawing, and I’m certain that I would create painters.' - Ingres

One important rule to remember when thinking about your subject, and how you will be challenged in different ways according to "nature and reflection".

Always be observant, and if you find out that some rules of nature are a bit marred, you need to find out the reason why. Observation will be your greatest  friend, and you will find that like anything else, you will develop better observation skills with training.

Use different pencils for different textures and experiment, this is the only way you are going to learn how to handle your tools of the trade. "And that's what they are". Your pencils are going to teach you how to gain more feeling in your hands and also steady them.

One more thing before you tackle this lesson, remember light and shade, the higher points of the wolf will be where the light hits, and the lower points will be the shade where the light cannot get to as easily. Always work with that rule in mind.

 Return from Fur Tutorial to How to Draw Wolves