Study in Drawing Fur

[Buddy'smyboy]

Oh boy, everything's trying to distract me from drawing fur! Building a fence, baby chicks hatching, and new drawing books. I got a dragon drawing book and a figure drawing book, and my focus is on them, as guilty as I feel about not drawing fur! I'm not completely giving in to my desires though; at least two hours of drawing fur a day. That way I'll get those pictures finished, gain experience drawing them, and be able to use the other hours of the day to use those new books. I feel like I have a lot of stuff I want to do, but don't have the time to do it all in a day Why can't we live on Venus? One day on Venus is equal to 243 Earth days! As long as I'm having fun doing whatever it is I'm working on, I think that's the best situation. No point in drawing something when I'm only putting 60% of my energy into it.

[emmabeth]

Yep yep, its got to be enjoyable!!!

[Buddy'smyboy]

I'm just about done with PikiPiki's dog, but I'm having a few problems fine tuning it. The fur above the dog's eyes- I'm having trouble drawing it to make it look realistic and as if it's coming forward. My mom looked at the drawing and said I did I really good job with it (she actually mistaked it for being done) but I'm not satisfied with it yet There are a few areas like the ears and around the eyes that need to be darkened up- easily done and I think it will look better after I get that darker, but the fur in the middle of the forhead is still really bothering me. I don't know how exactly to make it look like it's coming toward the viewer as well as look thin and a little wispy like the fur looks in the photo. Any advice?

[emmabeth]

Without seeing the pic, I dunno!

Show us and see what happens - I know how it feels to have people think something is done and you are not happy with it though so I see why you didn't post it already, but don't worry! No one will be mean (or ill beat them with my mod-stick!).

[Nettle]

One useful trick if you are not happy with some artwork but not quite sure eaxctly what needs changing - is to hold it up to a mirror and look at the reflection. Often then the bit that needs changing stands out.

[Buddy'smyboy]

I can't figure out how to load the pictures I took of it. I'm trying to upload them through my deviantart profile because that's the only way I know how, but it keep on saying FIGI argument or something like that, unsupported file type blah blah blah even though I've uploaded photos like that before. Any other way to do it because I don't know any.

[emmabeth]

I would host elsewhere and link rather than try to upload direct to here. Or if the site you are hosting on doesnt allow direct image links, then give us the link to go see on the site itself?

[Buddy'smyboy]

Don't worry, emmabeth, I got it figured out. I tried again on deviantart today and it worked just fine so it must have just been having problems yesterday. I took a couple different pictures from different positions.

http://ewebster123.deviantart.com/#/d460jwm

http://ewebster123.deviantart.com/#/d460k0u

http://ewebster123.deviantart.com/#/d460k7r

[PikiPiki]

Aww, that's definitely my Teddy! It's looking wonderful so far =)

[Buddy'smyboy]

Aww, that's definitely my Teddy! It's looking wonderful so far =)

If you can recognize it as your dog, then I'm definitely doing something right! Glad you like it. It'll only get better after the others comment too

[chay]

WOW! looks great, buddy'smaboy

[emmabeth]

Wow, really REALLY good job!

I can see what you mean about certain areas, I can't quite put my finger on it either! All I can offer is, really concentrate on it being shadows/light and not 'fur coming forwards'. You KNOW its fur coming forwards up off the dogs face, but you need to suggest it.. rather than spell it out for the person looking at the picture.

Does that make sense??

[Buddy'smyboy]

Wow, really REALLY good job!

I can see what you mean about certain areas, I can't quite put my finger on it either! All I can offer is, really concentrate on it being shadows/light and not 'fur coming forwards'. You KNOW its fur coming forwards up off the dogs face, but you need to suggest it.. rather than spell it out for the person looking at the picture.

Does that make sense??

Yep, it makes perfect sense.

[springchowie11]

man emmabeth. I can't draw anywhere near as good as that. I am not the best at drawing. My sister is good at drawing though.