I guess I could take a shot at it. I think there are many others who are far better at fur than I am, but perhaps I’ll do in a pinch. First off I should mention that my techniques are at times against conventional wisdom in spite of the fact that there are really no hard and fast rules in art. But there are some things I consider to be rules about graphite itself and the ways we apply it and that has led me to develop the technique I use to draw fur.

Here’s how I go about it. I place a tremendous amount of importance on eyes so I start with the right eye (I’m a righty) and move outward from there.

I find a grade of pencil that will allow me to get the right value for an area I want to draw. I do not like sharp pencils and you can see this at the edges – especially on the one on the right. I generally do not push very hard when I’m doing this because it is easy to damage the paper when drawing with tips – even dull ones. I also work in layers so I will go over and over an area time and again .. each layer is not very thick or dark but they add up to a pretty solid coverage. Usually I find the need to erase hairs throughout that area. I use a click/stick eraser. I cut the eraser off parallel to the tip so there is a sharp edge all around it. Holding it like a pencil I pull the edge of the eraser towards me – generally not pressing very hard. Remember there is a lot of graphite in layers down at this point so the eraser sometimes just skates along the slippery graphite without seeming to remove much graphite. This is actually good because it disturbs the graphite and does leave a track though it’s very light. Some strokes will catch and erase to the base paper. When I’m done erasing I spend a fair amount of time cleaning up. My click eraser leaves a lot of debris and I want to get that up before I try to do more drawing. If I miss a piece, my pencil will grab it and roll it in graphite so it becomes a darker ball. This ball will usually stick to the drawing somewhere and I’ve found sometimes that they simply can not be removed ever – remaining a small, dark blob. First I will brush the drawing pretty aggressively with a 2″ paint brush. Surprisingly my drawings don’t seem to smudge very much. In this way I get most of the debris off the paper but there are always a few that won’t budge. For these I use BluTack or my kneaded eraser. BluTack is slightly sticky which helps it remove the eraser bits. My kneaded eraser is nearly constantly in one hand when I draw so it is warm and slightly sticky itself as a result. Either work well but you want to get that debris off the paper.

Then I’ll go back and re-tone all the hair – I rarely leave bare paper showing anywhere within my subject outside of the eyes or something in bright sunlight. I also “tuck” hairs back into the main hair mass by toning down at least one end of the line. This has basically added another visual layer. It may or may not be enough – sometimes I go back over an area 3-4 times in a row to get the hairs to appear to be the right length and the right overall value and ‘feel’.

Another area that should be mentioned is where one marking/value meets another. These need to be soft and the illusion of hairs should feel continuous.

This shows what I mean about those edges. A surprising amount of information concerning expression is seen in the fur. Particularly important are the eyebrows – longer hairs above the eyes. Cassie is a fairly long haired callico – these were drawn the same way but made to be longer.

Notice how different areas of the head and body have differing length hairs – and differing textures of hair – some very fine and others more coarse. Most areas have at least 2 cycles – putting down graphite, erasing hairs, replacing graphite being one cycle. Don’t let hairs get too parallel or the same length – it won’t look right.

The last thing I do is add the whiskers. I do not worry about whiskers crossing areas I’m working on. Once I have the underlying texture done I will use my eraser to put in the whiskers. If I do not like the look of one that I do it is a simple thing to touchup the underlying texture thereby covering the erasure. And try it again. Remember the few finer long whiskers coming from above their eyes.

And just for the sake of completeness, the exact same techniques work well for human hair. The only differences are the length of the hair, the thickness of the scalp and the coarseness (beards as opposed to other hair). To do coarser hair simply push a bit harder with the eraser – it will make wider lines. Other than that it’s the same process.

It takes a bit of practice to do and you may very well not want to get so detailed. But that’s how I approach it so perhaps there was something in this of use.

Also check out our classroom .. there is a class on drawing fur.

Hi: I made a video on how to draw a cat using the grid method. It is posted on YouTube. The address is http://www.YouTube.com/pencilartnz. It might be of some use to you. Cheers Glen.

TimeShadowed

Your reply to me sounded frustrated and a bit discouraged, which I am sorry to hear. I totally understand why you might be bored with fruit and veggies though they are a useful subject, and even now I enjoy drawing them occasionally

From a brief look at the link you sent me, I would say you aren’t paying enough attention to negative spaces – that is the space around and between objects, or even features such as eyes. It almost appears that you aren’t really looking at your reference, but drawing what you think you see.

As many others have mentioned drawing well is based on really looking at and “seeing” what you are drawing, which includes paying attention to the spaces around objects, the shapes and the tones.

It takes concentration, and allowing the hand and eye to work together without out a lot of distracting thoughts. If the thinking part of the brain is being overly busy you end up drawing what the brain thinks should be drawn, not what is really there. That is why people suggest you turn a picture upside down to draw it, that way the brain doesn’t recognize the object and can’t influence the lines you are drawing.

You do need to occasionally stop, step back and then do a visual check on progress, but learning to draw is really learning to see. I know so easy for me to say and it can be very hard to do. Though I think it is easier to learn when you are drawing real objects rather than from a photograph.

Using a grid can help you focus on just one section of a photo at a time, it isn’t how I have learned to draw, but I know a lot of folks find the tool useful.

I don’t suppose there are any local drawing classes you can take? Course it is critical to have a good instructor who can help you to see with some helpful hints and suggestions. A hyper critical instructor is no help at all, nor is one who ignores you – been there, it wasn’t fun.

Good luck, and remember you are supposed to enjoy the process not just the end result.

There is nothing wrong with tracing or even using a projector, if its good enough for Mike Sibley!

If I were you I would do two things, firstly I would carry on with the tracing , even with a tracing you still need to develop your eye so its not bypassing learning just helping you along.
I would also do sketches freehand and check them with your tracing and make alterations that way.
The grid method is another thing you can work on also.

Personally I find it easiest if there is a small area to work between so for example when I did Durers hands from the wekly drawing thread I traced the outline to make things quicker ( I never seem to finish these on time!) then worked my way in from each line I had to fill in the details.
You have to *really* look and try and see *every* detail that is there.
Try doing the hands, it gave me a headache but it was a really good exercise for me.

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=939258&page=4

I realise you probably only want to draw cats or something as I am the same but this kind of thing is a really useful exercise to learn to see and coordinate what you see into what goes on the paper.
Cats etc are more difficult from that POV as they are more blurry.