Coloring fur step by step

The flowery hare featured here is my first completed work of Hanna Karlzon’s coloring book Daydreams. I am especially happy with how I colored the fur of the hare and would like to share my technique with you.

I decided that this hare is going to be a greyish-brown color with some orange color accents. In this step by step, I used Faber-Castell polychromos FC #271, 180, 177, 109, 115, 274, 199. You can use any brand of pencils and any number of colors but black should be one of the colors and the last one to be applied.

• Step 1 first apply a base color, I decide to use a very light grey
• Before you start the next step, decide the direction of the fur, where does it start and end. The area around and between the eyes can be a bit tricky, I observed the fur of my dog while doing this. I left the eye socket plain (no fur) and highlight it with a bit of bright yellow to make the eye stand out.
• Step 2-7 Make sure your pencils are pointy sharp for these steps. I started with colors light to dark, apply what I called “flick” stroke to create the fur effect. Press the pencil into the starting point and flick it as if writing a check mark. This create a pointy end of the fur. Be consistent on the direction.
• Last step – pick one of the medium dark color (Raw umber #180 in this case) and blend it into the area to cover any holes as shown. Don’t go all the way to the edge, leaving some area blank creates more depth than if you cover the entire area with fur strokes.

In case you are wondering, the background is done using watercolor. I discussed this technique in my last blog “Using watercolor on coloring books“.

Happy Coloring!