How To Draw Realistic Animal Fur (Hare) - Pastel Art Tutorial BEGINNERS 4K

Hi and welcome to another realistic animal drawing here on my YouTube channel. In this video I'm going to be using soft pastels and pastel pencils to create my next wildlife piece, which is going to be of a brown hare. In this video I will occasionally talk you through what I'm doing, with the hope that you can learn more about soft pastels if you are new to them. If you would like further reading, there is tons of information in the description for this video. Like with all my portraits, the first thing I usually start with is the eyes. I like to make them look as realistic as possible to set a precedent for the rest of the portrait to follow. I can then go in with my soft pastel sticks and then start putting down some of the base colour layers. These areas will be covered with pencil details soon, but it's really important to get the right colours and tones beforehand. I strictly draw on pastel matte paper by Clairefontaine. It's of excellent quality and it holds the pastel well enough so that you don't need to use fixative. Using fixatives will always change and ruin the colours and tones of a finished piece in my opinion. My favourite pastel sticks to use are Unison Colour and Schneekay. There are a few other brands I have collected from, but these two in particular are always my go-to. They are buttery smooth and the colours are perfect for what I need. If you would like to find out some of the materials I have used for this piece, then you can find them in the description as well. Once I'm happy with the placement of the colours, I can then start using my blending tools to blend it all out. Here I'm using Soft Tools, which is just a handle with a small changeable sponge at the end, perfect for blending in pastels. As you can see here, it's also possible to use small disposable makeup sponges and they are also very cheap. I think I paid around £2 for 100 of these and they work very well for small detailed areas. You will also see me blending with my fingers and this creates more of a subtle blur effect, just to smooth everything out instead of carrying the pastel pigment around the paper as the sponges do. To add in and refine some of the tones, I will use my pastel pencils as they give the ability for great control in terms of their sharp point and also because they deposit a lot less pigment than the sticks do. Just a quick note, if you would like to watch the full real-time version of this video, to watch how I create this piece in full detail, you can find that video along with many others over on my Patreon channel. The link for that is also in the description. Now it's time to start adding in the pencil details and I just want to get a general sense of the shape and direction of the fur. If you are drawing on a relatively small sized paper like me, it really helps to have your pencil sharp to keep the level of detail high. Here I'm using the Caran d'Ache pastel pencils. They are an excellent brand and the range of different colours is absolutely huge. Furthermore, they are one of the softer pastel brands, meaning that the marks they create are very opaque. This is perfect for details such as adding in fur lines like so. It's also important to note that the downside to having a soft pastel pencil is that they break and snap much easier than the harder brands. To sharpen my Caran d'Ache pastel pencils, I use a sanding machine which seems to be the best break-free method to sharpen them. As you can see, I have continued to work with both the highlighted details and also the darker folds that I can see. Reinforcing the darker areas will help to make sure that the contrast is high and that the structure of the face is correct. For these highlight details, I'm usually applying a medium level of pressure with my pencils. Now, following the same principles as I did with the face area, I'm going to begin working on the ears which are my favourite features on his. I absolutely loved the crazy scotches here in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie and I love how they animated his big ears to express all parts of his character. My method here is to first map out all of the dark areas and I do this with blacks and dark browns from Unison Colour. I can then move my way over to the lighter and colour areas. Even though pastel matte paper can hold a lot of soft pastel pigment, it's important not to deposit too much down. Putting down too much pigment will completely fill in the tuft of the paper, making it impossible for any more pastel to be added which also means that the pencils won't be able to add any details on top later on. If you are interested in finding out the exact colours I used in this piece for both the pastel sticks and pastel pencils, I have listed them all over on my Patreon full real-time version video. Again, the link for that is in the description if you're looking for even more information. Here I'm using a kneadable eraser and this is simply helping me remove an excess of pigment. Lifting up some of the pigment like this will only slightly erase what's there but it will allow me much greater deposits of pastels with the pencils. I do this occasionally so that my pencil details will show up very well. I'm now just going to refine some of the dark structures to map out the area as best I can and then I'm going to start adding in some colour with the pencils before moving on to the final details. So now I am using the black Carbothello pastel pencil to refine some of the dark areas at the top of the ear. I'm then going to take this ivory pencil from Carbothello and start penciling in the details while also bridging the gap between the two colours for a smooth transition. This will help to keep the furt looking soft, realistic and fluffy. Where you can see the short hairs here, I opt to use a more vibrant yellow even though they don't appear that colourful in the reference photo. This is because if I used the same light yellow ivory colour it would appear too pale against the base colour layer. Choosing a more vibrant yellow for example will help keep the drawing more vibrant overall. Now I am using the Caran d'Ache Chinese white which is the most opaque white pastel pencil I have and I'm also using my fingers to blur some of the sections to create more of a smooth transition. Once I am pleased with how the ears are looking I can then move on to the body of the brown hair. Even though the area looks light, in between the highlighted fur details you'll see that the underneath is dark. I want to replicate this with my base layer before putting down any pencil details. This will replicate how we perceive fur in real life. The highlighted fur stands out against the dark underneath sections giving a 3D appearance. It's always important to remember not to deposit too much pigment down but if you do you can always use a kneadable eraser to lift some of the excess pastel off. This will ensure clean vibrant lines when working with the pastel pencils. As you can see I am again using my soft tool sponge just to blend out that pastel. I will then start adding in and refining the colours further mainly adding in more dark pigment to the areas that I think need more. To better incorporate the soft fur with the white background I will take light colours including light greys and add in some of the fur texture along the edges like so. I am now starting just to fill in that fur texture. You can start in any place you like just try to use as many variations of colours and focus on the length and direction of each fur. It doesn't need to be a carbon copy but rather a general sense of what you can see in the reference image. As I'm going through adding in the light fur highlights it's also important that I fill in the dark in between areas to keep the contrast high. For that I will use blacks and dark browns. As I mentioned before Caran d'Ache pastel pencils are very opaque so they're perfect for fine vibrant details such as these. I am using a medium pressure to create these lines. Another tip is to keep sandpaper near. I taped some sandpaper near my drawing area just to sharpen the tip of my pastel pencil and this help keeps it sharp enough to deposit fine lines throughout. To make sure I don't get lost here I will refine some of the dark structure lines to make sure I know exactly where to add in the highlight details. I have to say that there are some areas of drawing which I find very boring, difficult and unsatisfying. This is not one of them though. I'm not sure what it was about this piece but I very much enjoyed filling in all these fine fur details. It sort of felt like a colouring in book or a creative puzzle that was very enjoyable to solve. If you are new to soft pastels and pastel pencils please let me know in the comments what you love or dislike to draw so far. I would also love to hear any video suggestions that you may have. I have been meaning to put a lot more energy into teaching on YouTube and Patreon so any feedback is greatly appreciated. I want to make sure that the videos I make are 100% helpful and leave artists feeling inspired and motivated to create amazing pieces that they're proud of. Thank you so so much if you've made it this far. If you have please leave a thumbs up on this video as it helps me out a great deal. Feel free to subscribe if you want to. If you enjoyed this video here on my YouTube perhaps you will consider subscribing over on my Patreon channel. On Patreon you will find many of my high quality art tutorials and real-time videos for some of my most realistic and impressive artworks. There are videos explaining in detail on how to use soft pastels, oil paints and graphites to name a few. I will also show you my go-to tools and how to use them. All of my content is beginner friendly and is aimed to allow you to create realistic artworks that you're proud of. There are three subscription tiers for you to choose from to see what best suits your artistic needs. Subscriptions are monthly and you can cancel at any time. Once you subscribe to a tier on Patreon you will instantly gain access to all the past lessons I have already published as well as all the exciting future lessons that are to come. Each post comes with a full list of the materials needed and the tutorials often feature a full list of each individual pencil colours so you know exactly what you need to use throughout. Being a professional artist and lucky enough to have commissioned clients from all over the world, Patreon is the place where I take you through my full creative processes as well as explaining all the techniques, thoughts and any tips that I may have. For a low monthly fee you will gain access to hundreds of hours of high quality drawn footage so you can see exactly how I achieve realism in my artworks. If you would like to see more information on what is available before subscribing to my Patreon you may check out the tutorial section on my website at www.shamelessart.com Both the link to my Patreon channel and my website is in the description for this video.