a little while ago someone asked me how i do my fur, so i made a guide!
the following tutorial was originally written for chickensmoothie's oekaki (chickenpaint v2). ymmv using this guide for other programs, though i have done my best to make this guide general!
1. choose colors, lay down your base
if you want your base to have an established pattern (like stripes, spots) do so now while coloring your base!
personally i have only tried this technique with a limited amount of colors (3-4), but it should be possible to use whatever colors and as many colors as you like!
if you have a hard time choosing colors, you can stick to black and white and instead practice only using values (dark and light). later on, you can use a color mode (like "overlay") to colorize your artwork in cs, or drag your artwork to another program where you can color it instead!
be aware that the next step is blending (during which new colors are created and some colors might not "blend well"!)
2. blend
i blended here using the default watercolor brush on cs!
if you have difficulty using the watercolor brush (or do not have access to it), you can alternatively try a low opacity pencil/pen, the air brush, or a soft edge eraser.
i blended on the base layer, but we'll be doing the "fur strokes" on a new layer above (taking advantage of "clipping" layers, to keep our brush strokes within our base!)
i like to leave some "brush strokes" of my blending tool visible to make the base more visually interesting! but you can try for a more smooth gradient if you prefer the look of that
creating a nice base is a super essential step!
for more realistic animal coats, you should follow the anatomy of your subject. for example, coloring the "upper coat" darker and the "undercoat" lighter
be sure to account for the patterns of your subject too, don't blend them out too much or they might lose their shape!
3. following the fur direction, start adding brush strokes
make a new layer above your base, this is where you'll add your individual fur strokes!
using a small brush with size sensitivity and opacity sensitivity, go between each section of color, using the base colors already set down
using varying size and opacity, continue to add small lines of color to resemble fur strokes. for longer fur, draw longer strokes. for shorter fur, draw shorter strokes
eventually, i will use the color picker between strokes to add more variation in color
the goal is to use the blended colors we created during step 2 to "blend" out sections, making a gradient with individual fur strokes
you don't need to color pick often if you remain in areas of "similar" color!
i also like to use the soft edge eraser to lower the opacity of some strokes, and to soften the tips of some strokes to make them blend better into the base
if you do not have a tablet or pressure sensitivity, you can manually adjust your brush and eraser to change the size and opacity. i also recommend using the soft edge eraser often to create more "variation" of opacity with less effort!
4. keep going, keep adding fur
be patient here, this is a time consuming step, but well worth the wait!
basically, keep going with step 3 until you've filled out your whole base (or are otherwise satisfied with it!)
5. duplicate your strokes layer and box blur it
here i just duplicated my strokes layer (i used 1 layer for all my brush strokes), then i used the default box blur on cs (find box bur underneath the "effects" menu at the top)
skip this step if you prefer the plain look and rather not blur it!
for those not using oekaki, this is basically a low amount of gaussian blur over the entire layer of fur strokes!
6. lower opacity of box blur
here, i set the opacity of the blurred strokes layer to about 50%, but you should experiment and see what opacity you like best!
of course, if you prefer not to lower the opacity of ur blur, u can do that as well!
7. add brush strokes outside the lines
optionally, for more realism and to make your subject look fluffy,
you can add a layer atop your lines and color pick from your fur to add a few brush strokes outside the lines!
and that's it! now you've got some realistic looking fur!
below is an example cat i've colored using this technique:
background: qwertyo on cs (Solminol on th!) lines: adamanted on cs and th! edits and coloring: castiiian (hey that's me!!) character owned by Lokisaurus on cs!
thanks for reading! 💖 if you have suggestions for other tutorials, lmk!