10 | 20 | 40 | 60 | 80 | 100 per page
Oldest First | Newest First

Painting realistic fur digitally

I've asked about this on countless forums, and no one can give me a good answer... or even attempt to answer at all.

So, how does one go about making good digitally painted fur? What brushes are to be used? Of course, there are so many different ways to make fur and tutorials, yet none seem to have really helped me out any. I've been painting fur for *years*, so it's not like anyone can say "just practice" to me, believe me, I have been. ;)

Attached is one of my images in which I really like how the fur texture came out. You can almost feel the coarseness of the fur. Yet, it was lucky. It was the same technique I always use, although, it came out super nice just that one time.

Here are some more examples of my fur texture in images where I don't think the fur is up to par, at least for my standards. I'd love to paint fur like Balaa or Starfinder, and that is my ultimate goal.

http://spiritcreations.artspots.com/image/18083/valzahd
Oh how blurry the fur is. :\ Nevermind how poofy the fur is on top of the head, which is what the commissioner wanted, yet it still looks "no" to me. This certainly is not good fur, at least not what I want my fur to look like.

http://spiritcreations.artspots.com/image/17372/kwasi-da-hyena
Still... no. It's a neat image, but that fur isn't real looking. It looks like it was digitally painted! :D .... :(

So, how does everyone else paint fur? Any good tips, tricks, techniques? I've used fur brushes, painted each fur individually, etc. I'd love to learn some other awesome techniques.

Well I'm certainly no Starfinder or Balaa, but perhaps I can be of some help? I went and found samples of both Starfinder and Balaa's work, as well as a real photo reference and a sample from your paintings. As far as I can tell, the biggest differences are contrast and clarity.

There is not much contrast in your fur texture, so it doesn't look very deep or very three-dimensional. You'll notice that even in Starfinder's WHITE wolf, there are blacks - especially in the ears where the fur goes so deep as to disappear into the skull. Your hyena has a hole in his ear, but it is not gradual. The light should appear to slowly be blocked out hair by hair as the shape of the ear recesses deeper, each hair absorbing what little light has filtered through the hairs in front of it until no light gets through. Your highlights as well are not very stark, so there is no sheen or much of a variety of color in your fur. If you study say - a rabbit pelt, or even a high-quality faux fur, you will notice that the hairs themselves are usually not one color. Near the tip it is usually lighter or darker (depending on whether it's got a frosted look or not) and near the base, darker. This individual color variation is something I've tried to deal with by doing the fur in layers where I paint on the darkest color first (closest to the skin) and then go in with a medium color and then put in my lightest (as well as some even lighter colors where I want it to appear glossy). It appears to me that you use a blending tool a lot. It seems like Balaa might use a blending tool somewhat - especially for softer fur, but you might note that even though the texture of her wild dogs fur is similar to your texture (like on their cheeks and above their eyes), the whole animal is not that way. Where the edge of the mouths are there is a dark contrasting line of shadow that conveys a wrinkle (where no light is reaching). It is almost as dark as the black gums of the dogs. And look around their ears - definitely the artist has deviated from the technique used on the cheeks and brows and you can see that the fur appears thicker, deeper, and more dimensional. Where the fur is short and close to the skin, she used a similar technique to yours, but where she wants to show a change in direction, depth, or shape, she contrasts the fur more with darker shadows between individual hairs and clumps of hairs. She seems to use the smudge sparingly, and hardly at all on the shorter hairs (around the eyes, where the ear connects to the head, and the chins). Starfinder on the other hand does not seem to use a blending tool, as every hair on that wolf is visible and not smudged at all. If she does use a blender, she hid it well. So perhaps the more realism you want, the less smearing you should use and the more colors and contrast you should use.

Here in this example of so many samples, I threw in a quick fur test to try to show you what I mean. I painted a black square, then sampled the brown you used in your hyena. With a very small brush I used my tablet to draw many little hairs over the black. This created high contrast and high detail, as one can see each hair and how it overlaps and blends into the hairs around it. I also made my hairs go in slightly different directions, as though they were following different shapes (which when you think about it, a face is made up of many different lumps and bumps depending on skull shape as well as muscles and blood vessels, so it makes sense not to have the hairs all going the exact same direction as they grow out at various angles from the skin surface). I did this because I noticed in both Starfinder's pic and the photo, that the fur, though it was going in the same general direction, had waves and deviant hairs throughout. Even Balaa's fur changes direction in certain spots - where it meets the ears, around the eyes, and on the female dog's cheek.
I used a thick-thin technique where I raise my pen off the tablet with each stroke (unfortunately my tablet I use here at home is not as nice as the Intuos I use at work so the strokes turned out a little spotty) and in the second example I added highlights (I sampled your pic again, but the highlight was not bright enough so I bumped up the lightness) and smudged the fur on the right as you can tell to show how you might use the smudge in certain spots just for softness. Whenever you're doing fur that has guard hairs though - they are not as downy/fluffy as underfur, and so I think that's why it looks better to be able to see individual hairs across most of the fur's surface.

"Follow the form" is my best advice for you aside from the contrast stuff. It will help your characters to really look more 3D, and the fur to seem more realistic and less digitized. It might even help if you took a skull or 3D statue of an animal and put fur on it, following the form and shape and making the fur follow the object's perspective (shorter, more condensed and less detailed the further away it gets).

Does this help at all?

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That has to be the BEST answer I have ever received, and for once, it is VERY VERY helpful. I only wish you were here beside me IRL to coach me on how you did that fur in the black squares... it is INCREDIBLE looking. What brush did you use and what size and opacity?

As for the hair going in different directions, I'm just not sure where to make it go in different directions. I guess I can use Starfinder and Balaa's work as a reference for that. :)

Thank you so so much. I am going to wait for your reply about the brushes before I begin working on this character. I can't believe how incredibly helpful you were. :) Thank you so much!

Oh thanks! I'm glad!

Heh - I just thought of another thing to add to my post and you replied before I finished editing it, ha!

Let's see...I still have Photoshop open so I will look at the brush size...

Working at 100% at 200 dpi (I usually work in 300 just so it will for sure print nicely) with a brush size of...two pixels, ha ha ha. Well we ARE drawing hairs...and 100% opacity in this case (for clarity).

Here at home I only have Photoshop 6 (rather than CS2) so...I'm doing my best. Truthfully I like to work in Painter more when I'm doing fur, as I can get a nice soft looking fluffy fur undercoat without even blending by using the dry acrylic brush. And then I use a tiny oil for the little hairs over the soft undercoat. We work with what we have though - do you only have Photoshop?

As for fur direction - I have always had a basic rule in my head that says that all fur flows from the nose to the toes. And it basically does, but some areas swirl and curl and create ridges all the same. This is why I did a fur study on my sister's dog, Greta. It's in my sketchbook if you want to take a look, but I'd advise you do your own because it's quite the learning experience! I just took a lot of photos and analyzed each with arrows. Like this.

I used to use Painter X for everything, but now I use Photoshop only. It makes my computer space happier too. X3 I guess in place of oils, I can use a soft brush, and use a hard brush for the undercoat. :)

Thanks for your help hun! I'm going to try this out right now. I might upload a WIP of how I'm doing, as well.

Okay, here is a WIP. I worked on his neck puff mostly, and his head. Started adding the fur on his arms. I'm actually surprised I'm doing well with this so fast, and I know I'll get so much better with practice. :) What do you guys think?

Heh, good thing I refreshed the page before I posted :). Vizon is correct about the contrast and clarity. Creating convincing fur is more about lighting and color than the actual texture. You just need to simulate the phenomenon of light.

As for rendering individual strands, I don't like to use special brushes to attempt realistic fur because it either makes the fur look too thin, too mechanical, or too frizzy. Real fur tends to group together, and the only artists I've see do that effect properly are those that render every single hair or they paint loosely like an oil painter that only has 6 hours to complete a painting; they'd use a single brush stroke to represent a group of hairs, flowing in the direction of the group.

It's technically possible to save time using a coarse bristle-like brush with Pen Pressure modulating the Brush Tip Size to make the hair group get closer together, but it's extremely difficult to control something like that with Pen Pressure (see first example in image below).

While Vizon was posting I threw this image together to show why I don't like those fur brushes and what I usually do for fur. I tried to exaggerate the effect so you could see technique a little more clearly. The first one is a custom fur brush (based on the one's I typically see online) which I never use for the reasons described above, the second one is my "acrylic" brush which I'll use for finished paintings (which are usually very gritty and have tons of texture), and the third one is what it would look like if I did my usual loose-concept-art style (very little texture, only concerned with shape, lighting and color). They all have the effect of fur except the first one looks stupid :); individual strands but the strands don't act the way they should. I haven't tried an airbrushing technique for fur yet but the principles would be the same.

You have to fake the way light reacts with fur (which Vizon explained well), and it won't really matter what tool or brush you use because the phenomenon of light will be represented well. There's no magic brush for fur that works perfectly because fur is not a repeatable pattern. However, water is (have a brush for that), trees are (have brushes for those), and clouds and explosions are (have lots brushes for those). Fur is so dependent on anatomy and the direction of the light source that you just have to do it by hand.

Wow Metsys, you're a huge help too! :) I'm going ahead and doing my shadow layer, and with what Vantid showed me and what you said, it's coming together (at least on the head where I put fur so far LOL). I'll remember what you said about the lighting. :) I'm trying to remember to group fur together and have it swirl around a bit and it's a huge help. Thank you so so much for making an example for me. :) HUGE help! :D

Ah - longer strokes in that neck fur - it is practically a mane as far as I can tell, and if that is so, the fur should be long there not short - looooong strokes. And fluffy.
And more darkness if he has gray fur like that - there should be some really rich dark shadows under the fur there. Like this: http://image50.webshots.com/150/0/5/23/427900523mdWFCU_fs.jpg

See how there's black in every crease - anywhere a layer of fur overlaps another? Highlighting the tips in some areas, making the entire muzzle pop from the rest of the fur, accenting the eyes...

And here - look at this silver fox - it's practically black all over with the silver look being created by the light frosted tippity tips of the fur: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1084/1393896263_a8690fffd9_o.jpg

Just look at that fine mix of colors - starkly black and nearly white! And sticking out in all kinds of directions (though it still follows the cheek/head shape).

Or I guess you could do it this way where the undercoat is light and the guard hairs are dark: http://www.worley.com/Tutorials/AlbeeFur/Illustrations/Wolf_Fur_12.jpg

Either way - more contrast! :D

That second image almost scared the crap out of me :).

OH nice clumpiness, Metsys! That would look good in that mane of fur on the fox's neck too!
Clumps and individual strokes: http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/763/454896.JPG

(LOL at the scary fox image comment - sorry!)

Hmm....clumpy neck mane? Sorta... Little fast and sloppy, but maybe it helps with the idea?

[Edit: just so you know - retiring for the night here]

*sobs* I've tried learning how to do this sorta thing but gave up too early on I guess. Just it took hours 'n hours and then I'd have like...a tail done if I was lucky. ^.^ The end results do look awesome though for people that know what they're doing.

Yeah, The reason why I don't paint every hair and instead do big blocky strokes is because it takes forever to do. I try to do as little detail as necessary before I'm declare my painting finished because I have a lot of stuff that I want to paint, and I don't want to spend 20 hours on a painting until I have something that I'm really interested in spending tons of time on.

Some people are okay with frequently spending 20 or more hours on a painting. The time it takes to render all those details is actually the easiest part. You can really get lost in it and have a relaxing time just noodling away at your painting. What isn't as fun and relaxing is the sketching, collecting reference, designing, pointing value/color studies and so on that you need to do before you start a painting. That's the hard part; rendering is easy, it just takes a lot of time.

As for me I just don't put that kind of detail in my work. I like having things loose and implied. I'd rather spend those 20 hours on 3 paintings, but that's just because my focus is on designing instead of making refined paintings to sell.

It's preference really. Doing all that detail isn't actually that bad. It's the easiest part of the whole process. The trick for some people is knowing when to stop. I have a friend of mine who is one of those detail painters, and once he's out of the sketching phase (which he does in pen) he goes right into making a detailed painting. I've never seen it make a loose painting, and he'd go on forever working on these until he doesn't have a brush small enough or the deadline has approached. I don't complain too much because his work is amazing, he just have a different goal with his work than I do.

Wow Spirit Creations - it turned out really awesome! That guy is more dimensional than I've ever seen you paint! And that eye is so striking! And I really really love your background. I think the only thing I'd change still is more shadow around the edges of his loin cloth and more shadow under his feet so he looks more grounded in the environment.

Here is a tutorial I found on shadows. It's meant for 3D modeling, but the basics are still the same for 2D art (how to place shadows, how they help to define your character within an environment, how to utilize shadows to guide the viewer or convince the viewer of an object's realism). You can skip over most of the techno garble and just view the highlights (particularly the visual examples):

http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=516590

Hmm...we could use a tutorial like this from a 2D artist's perspective, huh? I know I could!

Here are some examples of what I mean about darker shadows under your character's feet.

http://www.mendosa.com/hiking.jpg

The feet are lost more in the grasses in this one:
http://www.hikinginthesmokies.com/images/E066.jpg

And even in this pic where the sky is overcast and there is not much strong lighting, there is still a thin slip of black shadow directly under the shoes of each person:
http://www.bowdoin.edu/outing/images/hiking2-full.jpg

Same with this one:
http://collegehills.org/files/Photos/mics.%20pictures%20for%20site%20use/Hiking%204%20Water%20group%202007-s.jpg

And here are some crisper shadows (under direct sunlight) in a similar pose:
http://z.about.com/d/dc/1/7/V/F/hiking.jpg

Rock on! :) I guess you saw the final image I loaded to my gallery.

Thank you both for your help. It was a TREMENDOUS help! Since I got to play around with that technique, I already know what I will do different next time and I'm getting more of a grip on how to do it. 50+ pictures later, I can't wait to see what my paintings will look like. :) I linked some other artists to this thread, as well. :D

Thank you SO much for the compliment! :D It really means a lot to me. :) Thank you so much for the tutorial on shading too. :) I'll have that open during my next commission I'm painting (which sadly won't be uploaded to ArtSpots... well, maybe...it's a tasteful nude). I got a lot of nice compliments on FA about the fur texture, as well. :) Scraffic was showing me some shading tips, and shading was the one thing I was critiqued on during my ArtSpots application thing, so I've been working on learning shading (it confuses me), but I'm getting there with a wonderful community such as this to learn from, and I'm sure that tutorial will help me out even more. :) Thank you again!! :D

If the above made no sense, sorry, I'm falling asleep at the keyboard. XD

(Edited the post and added some more links to try to point out more specifics on the shadows under feet comment) - now time for sleep again. Glad I could help!

Oh man, I think I realized one of the reasons why fur texture is so hard for me. I had my Wacom in mouse mode, not pen mode. I have a new Wacom and I'm installing it right now. I'm going to try it in pen mode, even though I hate pen mode. :( It might make fur texture easier, though!

Oh man. Yeah, I never use mouse mode. Stick with pen mode, it's pretty easy to get used to.