Do you add texture to your drawings?

Posted on Sep 30, 2016

A question was posed by another artist regarding a painting of a dog they were working on (they were particularly asking in regards to fur):

svslearn_therese-larsson_painting-furDo you add texture to your drawings?

Here were my thoughts:

Painterly vs. Textured is really a personal stylistic choice.

I tend towards highly rendered & textured work (or totally graphical too actually).

SVSLearn.com has a great video on “Painting Fur & Hair with Therese Larsson” that may be helpful for you in making a decision.

I tend to paint like she showed, but I also learned a lot & adopted a lot from how Aaron Blaise paints (overall, but also fur). In fact, it was this video of his (“Speed Painting – Photoshop Rajah from “Aladdin””) that prompted me to purchase some of his tutorials, brushes & such a year or 2 ago: https://youtu.be/LuaMG0_-xWw

Note: Aaron has Fur & Hair brushes for sale on his site: CreatureArtTeacher.com However, I only tend to use these for things like facial hair or small hair areas (like the snout of an animal) and often it serves just as a quick underlay or as a texture enhancement overlay. The bulk of the hair/fur is done by volume shaping first then getting more detailed with each pass (Like you’ll see in the video by Therese, Aaron, and the examples below)

I grabbed other tutorial images & videos from my Pinterest board “Technique“

pinterest-badge-144px

Video watching fox fur being painted:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918929122459/

Step-By-Step Image with text:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918923237455/

3 Step Image:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918929381585/

More detailed series of images with instructions:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918919695683/

Image of Step-By-Step Instructions for Human Hair:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918919695613/

Image of Human Hair Instructions Part 1 (I think):
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918919695615/

Image of Human Hair Instructions Part 2:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/129548926753710468/

Image of Human Hair Instructions Part 3:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918919695617/

Image of Human Hair Instructions Part 4:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918919695620/

Image of Hair References:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/299770918919663720/

Hope all of this helps!

See more articles at QuietYell.com/Ramblings and see the work of Scott Monaco at QuietYell.com/Portfolio