How to Draw Fur

Fur is my favorite! :-) Even though it may seem tedious to draw individual strands of hair on your furry friends, it really transforms a drawing when you add all that texture and dimension. And it really IS fun once you get the hang of it, I promise! ;-) The technique I will be showing you can also be used similarly to draw wrinkles and human hair...

1. Shade 
Firstly, shade the area you are working on to the tone of gray it needs to be. In this example I am working my tiger's ear. I use a 2b graphite pencil to lightly shade, and then go over it with a paper blender to smooth it all out (2b pencils are the best for shading, they blend very well) . Keep layering and blending on the areas that need to be darker. If you need any areas to be EXTRA dark, use a 6b pencil, and blend. 

2. Erase

Next, use either a kneaded eraser, or my favorite, a Tombow MONO Zero eraser (it is firmer, and extra small) to create thin, white, highlight lines for the fur. 

3.Darken

Lastly, use your 2b pencil once again to go along one side of each eraser line, to add contrast. Only darken one side of each piece of fur (I only went along the bottom of each fur strand).

If the eraser lines are too bright white for the animal you are drawing, you can lightly go over everything with your "dirty" paper blender, to make them gray. Or, if you want extra-white, highlight fur in some areas, go over those strands with a white pen like this Sakura GELLYROLL pen.

And that's all! Have fun drawing your fur! ;-)

~Laree

Getting Started (turning a photo into a drawing)

Hello Artists! ;-)

Today I will show you how to get started on turning a photo into a drawing! When drawing a portrait of a person or an animal, for example, it's important to get the proportions right from the start on your rough sketch. We can do this by means of a grid. But, first of all, we need to pick out a picture to draw.

1. Pick Out a Picture

If you don't already have a picture that you plan on drawing, there are quite a number of websites that have high quality copyright-free pictures that you can download. Copyright-free means you can use the pictures in any way you want, without paying for the picture, or giving credit to the owner. Some of my favorite websites to get picture are :
https://pixabay.com/

https://www.pexels.com/

https://freeimages.red/

http://freeuse.io/

2. Turn the Picture Black & White

Once you have a picture picked out, it is really helpful to turn the picture into black & white, since we are drawing in black and white. ;-) This way we can see the the highlights and shadows better, and the tones of gray we need to draw. You can do this with any kind of basic editing program. I did it on my computer with Microsoft Office Picture Manager, by removing all the color saturation.

From this point, you can either start drawing the picture freehand on the paper size of your choice, or go on to the next step of making a grid to make sure the proportions are exact.

3. Print Out the Picture

To make the grid,  you first need to print out the picture. I print it out in either 4x6 or 5x7 size, depending on what works best with the picture I picked out. 
From there, use a ruler to make lines 1 inch apart, going horizontally and vertically on the picture. 
Then, copy the grid onto your drawing paper. First, draw out a 4x6 or 5x7 rectangle, then make the 1 inch squares inside the rectangle. If you want your drawing to be double the size of the picture you printed out (10x12 or 10x14), simply double the grid measurements (2 inch squares instead of 1 inch).


4. Rough Sketch

The last step is to make the rough sketch (the outline) of the subject you are drawing. Look at the picture you printed out with the grid on it, to see exactly where you need to draw on the drawing paper. 

Once you have your rough sketch done, you are ready to fill in the rest! You can keep the grid on your paper, to help to see where the other elements of the picture need to be placed (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). I usually draw right over the grid, and you cant even tell it was there in the finished product. Of course, if parts of the grid are going to show up through the drawing, you can erase those parts. ;-)

Hope this helps you with your future drawings! ;-) Thanks for reading!
~Laree