How to draw fur, lesson five.

This could be the fur on a long haired cat. Notice how I've added a middle value to the layers of fur. The middle value goes between the dark and the light color of the fur. This long fur has many breaks in it.

As you're drawing long fur on an animal, observe the animal closely and copy the breaks and layers of fur. That's what makes the animal on your painting look like the real animal. They're all different.

Drawing fur is much easier than painting fur. When you draw in black and white, you only need to think value. If you're painting, you must think of the value of the color and keep it in line with the values in these drawings.

I hope you've enjoyed these demonstrations on drawing fur. If they've helped you, let me know. If you want more demonstrations or art lessons, let me know that also.
Thank you for stopping by my blog! As always, tell your friends and relatives where it is...:)
donna

How to draw fur, lesson four.

When you looked at my last example image, you might have found yourself thinking, that really doesn't look like fur, because no animal has that smooth a coat! You were right in your thinking. Animal fur has "breaks" in it. It breaks when the animal moves, and changes shape. It breaks because some of an animals fur might be longer than other fur, or it might have dirt, mud or other matter sticking it together. A medium haired coat looks a little bit like this example of fur.

How to draw long animal fur is coming next.
donna

How to draw fur, lesson three.

This image is an example to help you make the transition from thinking about drawing plates and boards to drawing animal fur. As in drawing plates and boards, the value of your drawing is what gives you the illusion of fur. Darker values are down next to the animals skin. The reason is this, there's less light there. As the hair sticks up higher, it catches more light. As this layer of hair comes against the next layer of hair, the edges are created by the change in value from light to dark.

On to lesson four in how to draw fur.

How to draw fur, lesson two.

Here's lesson two in how to draw fur. We all know the shape of an animal isn't square like the boards in my first example. Animals have a softly rounded shape and their fur follows the form created by their skeleton and muscles.

The way light falls on an animals form is what gives us the ability to see how layers of fur lay upon each other. These plates demonstrate this principle. The shadow will move as the light changes so we have to take that into account as we draw fur, it might not always be shining down in the same direction as it is in this picture. So take that into account when you draw fur.

I'm using boards and plates (very familiar items) to help you make the transition to fur. These examples help you to see what's happening in a very simple form.

On to lesson 3, how to draw fur!

How to draw fur, lesson one.

When you first begin to draw fur, it's easy to get lost in all the layers and colors of an animal. I've devised a way to think of fur, that takes the mystery out of the process. See the image above. Imagine it to be a stack of lumber out in the yard. The sun is above the lumber and it casts a shadow around the top of the boards where one board lays against another. As this light hits the boards, the top of each board is lit up where it's closest to the light. Then you see a shadow that's formed when the edge of a board blocks the light from falling onto the next board.

The light has created a pattern of shadow and highlight. This same process will happen in an animals fur.

Lesson two is coming next.