If you love coloring your furry friends, you'll probably relate to the frustration of not knowing how to draw realistic dog fur or cat fur on your coloring pages.

To bring you the best tips on drawing fur with colored pencils, I decided to bring in a expert friend of mine and skilled pencil artist, Carrie Fifty. Lewis.

If you haven't already seen Carrie's piece of work, make sure you check out her website. Her horse and landscape colored-pencil drawings are amazing! She too has a series of beginner colored pencil tutorials, so if you're only getting started with colored pencils, check them out hither.

Without farther ado, allow's jump into Carrie'southward pencil tutorial on drawing realistic fur. If you find it useful, please share with your friends and get out a comment below!

Note: This commodity includes product affiliate links, where I may earn a commission if you cull to click through and make a purchase, at no cost to you lot.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Tutorial

Cut cat coloring page. Colored by Michelle HH

Download the coloring page used in this tutorial to follow along! Or please check out my other coloring pages in my costless and under $one department.

Alternatively, yous can choose a coloring folio you're already working on to apply the techniques used in this tutorial.

How to Draw Fur: Colored Pencil Tutorial

past Carrie L. Lewis

Drawing fur doesn't have to exist intimidating or fourth dimension-consuming. If yous call back a few elementary guidelines, it can be fun and pleasing.

What are those guidelines?

One: Don't draw every pilus. That'south a sure path to frustration.

Two: Stroke in the direction that fur grows naturally.

Yeah. Information technology's as simple as that.

How to Depict Fur with Colored Pencil in 6 Steps

Ane notation before we begin: The type of newspaper you use makes a departure in how your work turns out. The smoother the paper, the easier it is to draw particular. Simply smooth paper cannot take equally many layers of color, so you have to make every layer count.

Papers with a little more molar (or surface texture) concur more color and so you can add together more layers. Just they may exist more difficult to depict detail on. Non incommunicable, but more difficult.

If you're working in a pre-printed coloring volume, you lot accept to utilize whatever newspaper the artist chose. You can wait for books printed on better newspaper, and perhaps even discover some printed on drawing paper.

If, on the other manus, y'all're printing pages individually, you lot can experiment with papers to come across how they handle colored pencils. What do I recommend?

Bristol is a very smooth, sturdy paper that can have enough layers to alloy, and nonetheless let you to depict details adequately easily.

Stonehenge is softer and a lilliputian more textured. It's great for blending by layering and for drawing detail.

Canson Mi-Teintes is also expert for layering and particular, but it'south quite textured, so it takes more try to draw detail.

All 3 tin be trimmed to fit most printers and are capable of producing well-baked, clear line drawings. So if you're feeling adventurous, give them a effort. Use white the outset time though, since the color of the paper affects the way a drawing looks.

I used ordinary carte du jour stock for this sit-in piece. It's smoother than Stonehenge, just non as smooth equally Bristol and yous can buy it already cut to standard printer sizes.

Unless otherwise noted, I used Prismacolor Premier Soft Core pencils.

At present for the tutorial.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Step 1

Step #i: The Base Layers

The base layer "sets the stage" for the rest of the drawing.

Base layers are generally a color that's similar to the final colour, merely lighter in value. For example, draw a gray and white cat with a base layer of very lite gray. Utilize a light globe tone equally the base color for a ginger or brown cat, so on. (Yous can use other lite colors if y'all wish, but that'south probably an article for another time!)

Whatever color you utilise, depict smooth color for the base layer. Use a sharp pencil and light force per unit area with small, overlapping round strokes. Cover every expanse, including any highlights yous might want to describe after.

For my sample, I used Ginger Root to for the fur. I worked around the white markings I want my cat to have, but layered color everywhere else.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Step 2

Step #2: Darken The Base of operations Layer and Begin Adding Larger Details

Cull a slightly darker version of the base color to plot out any stripes or other darker markings yous want in the fur. I chose Artichoke.

With a very sharp pencil and short, flicking strokes, "sketch" in the markings. Draw in the management the fur grows. For brusk fur, use short strokes. For longer fur, utilise longer strokes. I used very short strokes around the true cat'due south confront and longer strokes within the ears.

Put strokes closer together or overlap them to draw darker values. In the lighter areas, keep the strokes further apart, simply keep to stroke in the direction of fur growth.

TIP: If yous have a cat, take a wait at the way the fur grows on it. You don't have to get every stroke right and y'all don't take to draw every hair, but seeing in real life how the fur changes direction is very helpful in creating realistic looking fur in your art.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Step 3

Stride #3: Darken Details and Shadows

I want to draw a more realistic cat, and so I'm going draw shadows on the left side of the true cat'southward confront. Layer Artichoke over the left side of the caput with short strokes that follow the management of fur growth. Overlap strokes to avert creating unwanted or unnatural looking edges. Keep your pencil sharp, and the pressure level lite. Remember, information technology's far better to add together more layers with light pressure than to do i or two layers with heavy pressure, especially if you want to blend by layering.

Don't embrace that side of the head entirely; there should still be some base color showing when you finish with this layer. But it should also exist noticeably darker than the contrary side of the face.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Step 4

Step #4: Blend with the Base Color

Side by side, blend all of the fur (except the white fur) with the base of operations color. Use a slightly dull pencil and circular strokes practical with light pressure.

Then blend with the next lightest color. Once more, use a slightly dull pencil and layer smooth color, but this time, layer merely over the adumbral side of the face up, and the parts of the ears and around the eyes that are in shadow.

TIP: Check a reference photo for lighting to see where y'all should put shadows.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Step 5

Step #5: Continue Calculation Layers of Colour

Keep adding layers until the fur is the colour y'all desire. You lot can either continue alternating through the colors you've already used, or you lot can add additional colors if you want to draw darker fur, or if you desire to change the color slightly.

For example, my cat wasn't very dark, then I added Dark Umber to the stripes, then to the rest of the fur, and finally again to the stripes.

Then I blended with light pressure on Dark Umber in the shadows.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Step 6

Step #6: The Item Layers

To end, add more strokes to mimic the look of fur.  Think to proceed them darker (closer together) in the shadows and lighter (further autonomously) in the lighter values.

I darkened the shadows on the left side of the confront with Dark Umber, darkened all of the stripes with Black, and worked around the highlights on the right side of the face up with Artichoke and Ginger Root.

What About Those White Markings?

Follow the aforementioned steps to draw that. Y'all won't be cartoon the highlights on white paper, but y'all tin can add together a touch of realism to those white patches by adding a few shadows. Simply follow the steps above, but apply a collection of grays.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Extra details

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Extra details

Conclusion

You lot don't have to draw every hair to draw fur that looks like fur. Instead, focus on the hair groups, and the places where fur changes from one color to another or from shadow to light.

How to Draw Fur with Colored Pencil - Extra details

Nearly the Writer

Carrie L. Lewis

Carrie L. Lewis has been painting and drawing since she was former enough to concur a crayon. In the belatedly 1990s, Carrie began doing more than colored pencil work, which is now her chief medium. Her focus has shifted from portrait piece of work to teaching through her weblog.

Website & Blog: https://www.carrie-lewis.com/
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