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The technique I use to draw animal fur
Since lockdown commenced, a majority of my commissions have been requests for drawings of pets. I watched loads of videos and learnt this technique from a fellow artist called Ali Haider Rehamn and would recommend watching his video for more details. Below I explain what I learnt and do when it comes to drawing fur on animals.

Posted by Sophia M Sketches from London, United Kingdom • Published 21st April 2021 • See Sophia M Sketches's 7 projects »

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Step 1
Firstly, I would recommend sketching out a rough outline of the animal you want to draw. If you would like to be more precise, you can lightly outline the areas of darker and lighter fur to plan things out.

Then you want to proceed by grabbing a dotting tool that has a very thin tip, you want to make indentation lines mimicking the hair flow on the reference image. It is key to make sure that both ends of the hairs are created with a lighter pressure than the middle, this will give it a more realistic look.
Step 2
I would recommend working in smaller sections so the indentation lines will look more precise and realistic. Once you have the indentation lines, you can apply a base layer with a B pencil over shading then blend out using the makeup brush.

On areas where the hair is darker, you can build the colour up by using a 5B or 8B pencil until you get the desired shading. For example, between the ear and the face, there would be shading of the hair as the hair is darker on the dog I used for my reference image.