How to paint fur with a direct light source

Hi there!

 

Let’s paint some fur :)

I am starting out with a sketch that I have flat-colored before detailing it. This is my original character who has a fur coat with a wolf’s head that serves as her mask. The idea was for her to be facing a bright snowy landscape of some sort, so much of the rims of her head and coat will be hit with a bright light.

 

But before we can get to those details, we must establish our base shadows.

 

 

With a brush set at about 75% opacity and optimized pen pressure settings, I start laying in the shadows on a layer above the flat colors set to MULTIPLY. It’s important to keep in mind that your shading colors should be lighter when using this layer mode, as it will darken the colors significantly on your local colors.

The first round of shading is complete. Now I can go into the base light detailing, mainly just getting an outline of where the direct light source is hitting our character. This is done on a layer ABOVE your sketch, with the SCREEN blending mode. :>

(I am also going back to my multiply layer to airbrush in a darker color to give more depth to areas that could be darker.)

At this stage, you can essentially be complete and it could be satisfactory for your purposes. However, I like to add a bit of extra finishing touches to give it more of a ‘pop’.

 

I do this by utilizing the Add (Glow) layer and a soft airbrush.

Voila! This last step is completely optional, and pretty self-explanatory to follow if you so choose. The airbrush size is large but the opacity is low, as this step is merely meant to add a glowy/more vibrant effect to the details you already have.

 

I hope this tutorial was of some value to you. ♡