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Lesson:
Painting Fur
It looks hard! But it really isn't. You can be a bit nervous and it even helps! Let's
talk about a short haired animal -- that means you have to use short strokes, short
touches.
And you know what? We have to think layers and layers just like the hair on top of our
heads. The easiest way to illustrate that is to say it's not like a doll which has a hole
on the top of his/her head and the hair falls out from there.
| Single Strokes |
Strokes
&
Zig Zags |
Top of Head |
Here is one layer on
the top of the head. You can make a single stroke/touch or loosely let
your brush even zigzag at times. Oh, yes, and I use the edge and corner of
the brush.
We also need to consider that there is more than one value in the hair to give
dimension. So, in each layer we need to add more than one value.
| First Value |
Second Value |
Comb |
Stroke in the first value as shown. Then touching in the same way as shown, haphazardly
stroke/touch in the second value within the first value.
Now, the last thing to do is comb gently to blend. Do this with a brush called the rake
(but only once or the values will mush together). If you do not have a rake, you can
lightly touch up and down between the layers with a flat brush.
Once you feel relaxed with painting/stroking/zigzagging the fur in one layer, you need
to know that you do not have to paint the whole area/animal one layer at a time. It would
take a long time.
| 1. First Value |
2. Second Value |
3. Comb |
You can cover a large area, about 1/2 inch at a time by stroking in the first value,
then the second value. But you need to stroke in three to four layers in that space.
It will take a little practice just as it took a little practice to write -- so hang in
there!
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