Drawing Fur and Texture: Tips from a pro artist

Hey there color pencil enthusiasts, welcome back. Today we're tackling fur using our amazing mouse model. I'll share with you tips on using base colors, layering and blending for fur, and how I add white highlights on whiskers at the end. You'll enjoy tons of information to improve your animal drawing skills and easily use these techniques on any animal portrait you want to tackle. So let's dive right in. And as always, if you enjoyed this tutorial please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel for more art inspiration. I'll post the colors and pressure in the top left corner with links to the color, mouse and outline, and pressure chart in the description box below. I'm working on Stonehenge white paper and Polychromos pencils, but you can use any pencil brand and just match the colors. I'll have some sections in time-lapse and other sections of the video at normal speed so you can see the techniques better. I drew the mouse on the paper first and I'm going to color the tree branch in a red brown. After that I'll work on the mouse's paws and nose and I'll go back to the tree branch later. So to start I use a method of blocking in base layers to develop forms on textured surfaces with fur. I've been drawing animals for a long time and I've learned that focusing on the body structure instead of just the fur itself makes drawing the darks and lights of the animal forms look more realistic and is much easier. I look at the shadows on the subject to understand how light hits parts of the body and if I'm struggling to figure that out I squint or blur the subject just a little bit. This helps me to see where the light is the strongest or the darkest as in these example pictures. The direction of the light also matters. So when drawing animals or people I think about how the texture affects the light and darkness of that subject. After studying these areas closely I started adding the base layers using the colors of the fur. When I do subject areas on animals that does not have a lot of surface texture like the feet or the eyes or even the ears I typically approach it the same way I draw all the other subjects. If my subject is light I start with a light base layer as in the feet and the nose and then I add subsequent layers to build up the form and the values. I'm also very aware that it's important to use layers with colored pencils as it creates a more dynamic drawing. So let's see where we are right now. We added in a very light pink over the feet and also on the nose and a little bit of a darker pink around the edges of the nose and feet. I'm also adding in a base layer over the eyes and adding that in in a dark brown and making sure that it's light enough so that I can build up the layers and control the form of the subject better. Because the eyes are dark I am putting in a dark base layer and typically this is the way that I work. So now the important part. I'm blocking in a base layer for the areas of the mouth that have a change in color either due to shadow part of the form or a change in the fur color. I'm using a dark brown to do this in the section around the eyes. Don't worry about this just look closely at your subject ask yourself what is dark what is medium dark what is light then choose a color that's similar to what you see and block it in for that area. Go very lightly remember a light hand is best all the time when working with colored pencils and we can see that there are dark areas around the eyes around the nose the ears and under the chin by the paws. I'm using the same dark brown but I'm blocking in areas that have a little bit of a lighter brown on them so I can use the same color because I'm going very very light with my pencil and this isn't going to make much of a difference it's just helping me figure out where are the dark areas and where are the blocks of change of color and shadows and that's really important. I'm now blocking in a red pink color this is for the lighter more red areas of the mouse. I'll use it all over in the ears and blocking in a base layer for the fur. I'll make sure I'm remembering to not go too dark over the area of the ear that is brighter it's like the highlight. I'm using the pink brown again to do this and I'm putting it at about a pressure of one. I'm now adding in some light brown blocking over lighter areas with a pressure of one and I'll switch over to a medium brown again a pressure of one to keep laying down colors of undertones for the different areas of the shadows and fur color changes. I'm going to switch over to working on the eyes again I'm going to add in some darker layers and I'm still working on a dark brown. I'm using a pressure of about a two right now just to get a little bit more depth and volume. At this point I'm adding in another blocking layer of medium brown this will help to build up those base layers and I'm able to do this because the area around the eye is quite dark. When I start adding in the fur texture I'll do that with a very dark brown or black so the lighter colors won't affect those darker fur textures to come. And then I'm going to switch over to a black and I'm going to do that at a pressure of one again this is all about just blocking in some dark areas. So right now I'm using the red pink and then I'm going to switch over into the red brown and I'm going to continue to just add a little bit of blocking and starting to do some structure on parts of the mouse face. And at this point I'm going to switch over to the cream color and I'm just putting it over the lighter areas so that there is a base color and then I don't have to worry so much about actually putting this in with fur lines for texture lines I can actually just block it in with a solid color. I'm putting it over the ears and around the tips of the ears again just to add a little bit of color because the mouse actually doesn't have a lot of white on it it does have some white fur but this cream color is just going to help out and tone things down a little bit and build up the color underneath the fur that I'll be adding. So no different than what I've been doing with the other parts of the mouse I'm working with a dark brown right now and I'm just starting to build up a little bit of the details around the ears and going a little bit darker make sure that you have a really sharp pencil so that you can get some really nice edges going on and once I've done this I'm going to jump into starting to do the fur texture. Okay so let's talk about fur textures and layering. I find that layering fur textures is the best way to approach drawing fur. What does this mean? When you look at your subject we already determined that the structure of the mouse has dark and light areas created by various situations like light hitting it or the form of the mouse as it turns or the shape or even the color of the fur. We've already created a really nice base layer by blocking it in but of course we need to make the mouse look like it has fur so our next task is to start using the exact same thinking using layers to create form by using fur lines. It for me is the crucial part of the drawing and a big tip is to work slowly build up and you will one have more control over the form of the drawing and two it creates a much better visual interest. I say that a lot but it's fantastic so let's dive in. I'm going to zoom in on the area a little bit closer so we can see what I'm doing. Using a pressure of one and two I start with a line that is a bit thicker at the base and then flicks out and tapers to a point. The lines for the fur should never be flat or blunt on the end even if the fur has been cut the fur is thicker at the base than along the length of the fur line. So just again a reminder I am using the light brown a pressure of about a one and a two. I'm making sure that my pencil is super sharp all the time because I want to make sure that I have a very very nice clean line. I'm also using a little bit of a contour line so you'll notice as I work my way around the face the top face of the mouse I'm curving the fur lines a little bit and this is just to follow the shape of the mouse. It's a really really great way to kind of trick the eye or the viewer's eye into thinking that the shape of the face is slightly curved so it's fantastic I love that. So here we are we're creating these fur lines don't rush it take your time and just have some fun with it knowing that you're creating a wonderful pet portrait for yourself or someone else and I love that. I'll keep working with this method light lines layering and as I work around the face of the mouse I'll switch over to a brown orange to keep building those colors. You can see that I'm still quite light with the colors keep doing this keep those lines thin and very light and we can also see that the colors are really starting to develop lots of depth being created by these layers. I'll work between the medium and light brown keep layering those thin fur lines and add some dark areas around the ears I'm working at a pressure of about a one and a two. So this is an interesting part of the drawing I'll start adding some pressure into the next layer but I'm going to do it in very strategic areas look at the reference image and keep asking yourself where is it lighter or darker change your pressure as you add color to these areas the control you have over your pencil pressure is such an important part of the drawing process with colored pencils. I hear a lot from students who tell me that they find that they're not able to get lots of colors on their drawing or the colors look too thick or the base layers are too dark. I get it it does take some practice but if you keep remembering to keep your hand light you're good to go. I've switched over to a dark brown and I'm going to bounce between the dark brown and the black at this time and again this is all about just layering more getting a lot darker building up the values and making it look a lot more three-dimensional so it's lots of fun and like the other layers when we're working with the fur lines I'm going to be jumping between the light brown and the medium brown and continue to just build very very carefully those little thin lines around the eyes and around the edges of the fur on the face so the next stage that I'm going to be working at is working with the black pencil at very very sharp and making little tiny thin lines and these are the little texture lines that we see on the mouse face and some of them are going to be very small also we're starting to add a little tiny bit of texture around the nose and I'm doing that by making small little dots they almost look like little indentations once I've worked with the black for a while I'm going to switch over to the dark brown and again I'm working at a pressure of about a two almost up to a three so I can get a lot of volume and I'm working on that eye again just to make sure that it's nice and dark and looks a little bit shiny with that reflection so again the next part of the drawing is not going to be any different from the rest of the drawing I'm continuing to build up the layers and as I build up the layers I go a little bit harder on my pressure so I'm working with the dark brown of a pressure of about a two or three and then I'm going to be jumping into working with the blending pencil and that's just going to help to smooth things down a little bit I don't like using solvent on fur because I still want it to look a little soft and I still want to work with the texture of the paper to help to enhance that and still create a little bit of white it's a big ruffled area of the white fur on the mouse under the face I'm going to approach it by simply using dark brown and some black to edge and create a sense of volume or as if something is underneath and over the face or the body also I'm going to leave a lot of the white fur blank there's no reason for me especially at this scale of a drawing to get very detailed on how that white fur is textured I'm going to zoom in to show you exactly what I'm going to create it with black and dark browns and switch between even the light browns so I'll put the pressure up and I'll put the color up in the corner I'm working on the details about the base of the nose I'm creating a little indentation and this is done by making a small dot with the warm red or red brown and then blending that dot into the surrounding colors so it fades out it gives the impression that there's a small area that goes in and that there is a shadow I'm also working on the paws where I'll add some warm red and black to create volume and give it a more three-dimensional look to the image I'm going to keep drawing the fur and work on the ears as well to make it look more three-dimensional it's going to be drawn with the same process as the first area build slowly add more black and take your time doing it remember to also have some fun with this I'm going to balance between all of the colors that we worked with before the black the browns the medium browns and a little bit of the reds also and I'll put those numbers up with the pressure so that you know which ones I'm using move on to the branch I'm going to add some linear lines and fill in for darks and lights I'm just giving the impression that this is wood and this is a great way to do it it's really easy I'll make sure that I add some values at the bottom of the branch and pick up some highlights so that it looks like the wood is coming out and going in this is similar to crevices or indentations anything that recesses would be dark and anything that comes forward is light next to finish the mouse I'll be working a bit with some solvents and I'm going to use it in a pen I mentioned before that typically I never use solvent on fur this is because I love the texture of white paper and I want to use it to enhance the drawing not to eliminate it if done correctly the tooth of the paper is actually a bonus and not a deterrence that needs to be completely eliminated this is of course my personal preference and I've always found it works great for me I will use the solvent on the mouse ears and the wood this is because the mouse ears have very little fur on them and I use it on the wood as a means to create more value changes it works great as long as you don't go overboard and fill in the whole area you can see that keeping some areas light and others with the solvent it makes it darker creates lots of value and changes and finally using white ink my favorite white to do whiskers the ink is such an amazing product with colored pencils and I work with two different kinds Winsor & Newton and Doc Ph Martin Indian ink I use a small paintbrush and carefully brush it on then come back with a sharp black pencil and edge it and voila the piece is finished remember practice makes perfect so don't be afraid to experiment with these techniques thanks for joining me today I can't wait to see you in our next video and happy drawing