Fur strokes are simple lines. You can start from the top down, or the bottom up. YOU ARE THE ARTIST. SAY IT OUT LOUD, "I AM THE ARTIST!" That means you choose.
You can also make fur with scribble Ws. Layer them and they get furrier!
I scribble colors on a scrap piece of paper to choose which ones I want. I wanted to use three shades of gray and an accent color. I used the first, second and fourth color from my scribble strip. See the two dark patches under the last two colors? I scribbled harder with those two colors to see what would happen to the color. They look pretty close, but I liked the last one better. I only chose one accent color to scribble, and I liked it. Sometimes I have to scribble a whole page of colors before I find one I like. (I have a big set of colored pencils!)
I always start with my lighter colors. I choose the areas I think would be light and color them first. In this case, its all the areas you would see if the wolf rolled over to have his tummy scratched. (Which I don't think they usually do for humans!)
Next, I add the medium shade, and overlap some of the light areas, spreading to the outside of the wolf. I use dark and light strokes.
Now I add the dark shade along with some of the browns. I also go back and add some more of the medium shades.
Notice that I don't always color in everything? You could, if YOU want to! You could color the whole wolf in with the light color first, and then add fur strokes over it. You decide.
What other kinds of strokes do you think could make good fur?
