How to Draw Fur

Learn how to draw fur using a simple technique featuring mostly lines! Indeed, drawing fur might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but doing it right can be important if you want to depict a realistic cartoon animal. 

There are no secrets here. All you need to do is draw lines until you get the desired result. The real challenge is to add just enough bright lines and darker ones to create depth and volume on the animal. Below you can see the final illustration from this tutorial. Let's see how drawing fur can be achieved using this simple step-by-step technique. 

Step 1

First, filled the area with a dark brown color like shown on the image below. Since I am only creating a sample, I don't need to work with outlines for this lesson. 

Step 2

Time to add some lines to this cartoon image! You can start with a slightly brighter color. It's important to increase the brightness of these lines gradually. We will use bright lines later in this drawing lesson to give more depth and volume to this illustration. 

Step 3

Next, you can draw more lines like shown on the sample below. This time, you can work with lines that are slightly darker. The goal is to create a fun texture with just enough contrast to make it easy to read. Adding too much depth in the beginning is not recommended. 

Step 4

Now the fun part begins! Using lines that are once again slightly brighter than the ones used until now, you can cover the area on top of the illustration. To make the transition smooth and fun to look at, you can add a few of these lines on the bottom of the illustration as well. Nice work! :)

Step 5

In this step, you must draw only a few brighter lines to give even more depth and volume to the fur found on top of this sample. If you compare the illustration below with the one created previously (in step number four), you can see that the difference is subtle. 

These are all steps to learn how to draw fur! :)

You can complete this drawing lesson by adding darker lines on the bottom of the illustration. That's it! Don't hesitate to use this technique to create unique patterns and lighting effects on the fur of the cartoon character you are working on. Enjoy! :)

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