How To Draw Animal Fur With Oil Pastel

How to do fur in pastels?

This topic has eight replies, v voices, and was final updated 6 years, 7 months ago past Ben Sones.

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July 9, 2022 at 5:46 am #993170

Hi in that location,

Newbie hither! I have dabbled in drawing in the past, but simply started 'for real' this yr in February when I started following evening classes in cartoon. I practise find information technology interesting as you acquire to depict subject you wouldn't immediately remember of or be interested in and y'all get to know unlike media. For example charcoal, I dear charcoal! Been dabbling in it a bit at present and I do similar it. Simply we have also tried our mitt at soft pastels.

My commencement drawing in soft pastels was ok. Information technology was a dragon, drawn in example of a toy effigy. Only afterwards I tried my mitt at a cat and that was pure drama. So I was wondering if anybody knows a good online (complimentary) tutorial (images and/or video's) on how to draw a cat or fur with pastels.

Oh 1 more question, but in our evening school we take not been warned virtually the dust of pastels, but here I do come across people taking precautions against the dust. Is information technology that dangerous?

Thanks,
Blacky / Evy

Welcome to the pastel forum!

The grit of pastels is tin can crusade respiratory problems – just similar breathing in any blazon of dust particles. While some folks utilise pastels for years without any problems, I think it is definitely a good idea to article of clothing a dust mask.

At the risk of sounding annoying, painting fur is no different than painting annihilation else. Don't recollect of it as fur, simply concentrate on the shapes of colour/value that you lot see. I did a small demo on how I would paint fur a while back and here it is!

ane) I similar to block in the bones night color of the object (whether it is fur or anything else). This is certainly not the only approach, but I find it easiest when I know I am layering from back to front end. 2) At present I look for and put in the next lightest shapes. Since I am painting fur, I try to use strokes that bespeak the direction of the fur and employ more linear strokes indicating hairs. 3) But I don't want the individual hairs to be that noticeable, so I alloy them into a more cohesive shape. 4) Repeating the aforementioned idea for the next lightest "clumps" of fur. Since light hits the most outer layers of fur, I am working from night to light. For the finish, I blend every bit much as desired (5) below:

Hope this helps, and again, it is certainly not the only arroyo!

Don

Thanks, I think this already helps me a lot.
I started with simply putting the colors I needed iso working from back to front end.
Definately going to endeavor it out!

More tips are always welcome, you tin can never learn likewise much

Don's demo is really good, he is a great teacher!!

I don't paint fauna fur, only do paint people's hair. I really wasn't "getting" it until someone told me to look at the dark and light "triangles" in the head of hair. And so I got information technology.

I now commonly use about 3-four colors in a head of hair- dark, dark-middle value, eye value and light, and this seems to work. Starting time I "map" out the dark shapes, much like Don did in his demo, and so go on to heart tones and lights. Sometimes the dark is warm, sometimes cool, it merely depends on the color of hair, so that's something to pay attention to as well.

Black fur (and hair) is tricky- non really black, only often you lot volition see blues, purples and sometimes greenish tones in blackness fur. White is not white- yous volition encounter many grays in white fur…

July 10, 2022 at 12:31 am #1228256

Dandy tutorial, Don! Looks like the curve of a cat's back right to a higher place the tail, looking at my cat curled upwardly I can really encounter that section in his current position (tail forward and out of picture. Tail in another position might move some of the pilus). Wow.

1 tip to add. Wait shut at the hues. Black or white creature fur oftentimes pick up the blue of the heaven strongly outdoors or in sunlight. Shadows on a white cat's fur will be quite deep blues. Highlights on a black cat will be quite light blue. Other strong background colors do reflect too equally the color of the light.

The more of these reflected colors you bring in, the richre the fur is renered. One of the cats in my sig line is a white one with a sky absurd blue bandage window light from one side and a pinkish orangish warm incandescent from a lamp on the other side, very colorful and no white used at all on the mostly white kitty!

Cool you're doing a cat! I love them and can't expect to see what you do. Sentry for areas where bulges similar a curve of genu or a shoulder bone make the fur puff out. Look at the direction of the fur. Get an impression more than detail and get out loose edges to hint at hairs. Whiskers are fine clean lines and it may aid to practise those with a pastel pencil or the sharp edge of a broken stick.

July 10, 2022 at 2:02 am #1228262

Cheers a lot for the tips, the colors will indeed still exist a challenge. Information technology helps to hear which colors tin appear in different colors of fur. In the past I Always thought, white cat is white and blackness cat is black. Merely that way you don't get depth of fur and such.

I am afraid though that my modest pack of 12 pastel pencils and 12 pastel sticks won't be plenty. I bought that because we had to purchase it for evening school. Simply at present I wait at some examples and such, I don't think I'll have enough shades of colors. Eg. I only take biscuit and brown. While it would be better to have (I call back) at least 5 shades of brown. But showtime things first, going to try a drawing with the colors I accept and if it works out (I mean the structure and how it generaly looks), I can still think about purchasing more colors.

Thanks once again y'all!

July 10, 2022 at 3:59 am #1228260

Hullo Evy, you accept a few slap-up suggestions here, I do my fur a piddling differently to above and actually work on building upwards layers of pencil strokes … I call up information technology really depends on the breed y'all're trying to depict … for man hair I use the same kind of method Barbra describes but I am yet to use that for fur … it likewise depends on what sort of "await" you are after at the end … I describe peoples pets then im chasing as realistic as possible (inside my own skill sets LOL enough of artists here who capture realism much much better than me!) … like I said … for me I look at the shape of the glaze and and so build up depth stroke by stroke

I retrieve you lot probably need to expand your mind by the two "dark-brown" tones you have equally I am guessing you probably accept orange, yellowish, black and white in your small collection as well … blended y'all will go some excellent "fur" tones … pastels blend nicely when layered over each other so don't be scared to play with them … I am completely cocky taught and accept had an accented ball experimenting with pastels/pastel pencils!

Work for cause, not adulation...
Live to express, non to impress...
Don't strive to make your presence noticed, just brand your absence felt...

July ten, 2022 at 4:26 am #1228263

As for the how to draw fur, got some tips here already and found something more on the internet. And so will soon try my mitt at information technology. And if it doesn't work out, I'll take to observe someone who tin prove me in real life. First take to finish this charcoal drawing of a kitten in a basket which I've been working on to heighten money for a cat shelter. But possibly I can take forth the tips here for the kitten. The basket I'm very satisfied near, the kitten is still a blank space :p.

I indeed have yellowish, orange, blackness and white in my little set of 12 colors. I was already writing downward some more colors to buy, came to another 12 I'd like to buy. Merely first things first, I am first going to try and draw a bit with the colors I do take. Run into if I can go something resembling fur. Imagine me ownership those extra colors and suddenly finding out pastels aren't for me after all!

I accept now the same with charcoal. Bought a set up of charcoal sticks and two charcoal pencils. And so I saw tinted charcoal pencils. Of course I soooo wanted those. But I have promised myself to try an depict some more with charcoal first and then by Nov when it is my birthday I'm going to see if I will proceed drawing with charcoal and if the tinted ones would exist a valuable nugget or unnecessary. And I'm going to try to do so with the pastels too. First dabble a flake with it and only after a while see if additional colors would exist an asset or not.

Thanks again, glad I can talk over things here :).

July ten, 2022 at 11:12 am #1228259

BlackScorpion-

Even more important than colour, is value in a cartoon or painting. That'due south why when you sometimes see a painting with crazy colors, if the values are right, the object will "piece of work". I love to practice cartoon eyes, and sometimes I challenge myself by just using 3 colors- a light, a medium and night tone- one of my favorite middle studies (sorry I don't have a photo) I used a white, a medium violet and a blackness pastel stick- and the heart looks actually realistic, just kind of creepy because of the imperial peel tone!

I suggest you try mixing your pastels on paper- y'all'll be surprised at what you can come up with- depending on what fur you are painting, if information technology is brown, endeavor doing a few strokes of say brown and yellow and white- or brown and ruby-red and white. You lot can add together in blackness too to make darker tones. Black, imperial, bluish and white can brand some nice black fur tones… y'all'd be surprised at what you tin exercise with merely 12 sticks of pastel, especially if you get-go mixing the colors… and if you arrange the sticks by value, effort practicing working past value- and you will get far with your 12 sticks…

Good luck!
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