TUTORIAL l Learn How To Draw Soft Realistic Fur In Colored Pencil l Drawing A Red Panda

Hi everyone and welcome back to my channel. In today's video I'm going to be drawing a red panda in coloured pencil. The pencils I used were mainly Faber-Castell Polychromos but I also used two or three luminance pencils in there as well. And this is drawn on Clairefontaine pastel matte. This is a surface I haven't used too much of in the past so it's fairly new to me. It's been really quite nice change to work with something with a lot of tooth on the paper but it's also given me lots of challenges as well because I do like to add in lots of detail and do find that this surface has been quite limiting when it comes to detail. But it's really nice to have a nice change every now and again. And another thing which is quite new to me as well is drawing in the background which is what I'm doing right now. I normally prefer my work to have a clean white background with the focus being on the actual subject. So adding in a background is also something that's quite new and it's made quite a refreshing change as well. So I won't go into too much detail about how I drew the background but I layered this up with several layers of pencil using polychromos, cross-hatching my first few layers and mixing in some other layers and then blending all that all together with a little solvent and a piece of paper towel. So after blocking in the background I'm now starting with the eyes. I'm using a really sharp black polychromos pencil here to block in the pupil and also outline the eye to start with. Pastelmatte tends to eat colour pencils a little so it's really hard or really important to keep a super sharp point especially to get those crisp edges. So then I moved on to blocking in the coloured part of the eye. I chose some peachy colours here and some browny tones as well. It's a really small space so I didn't worry too much about the detail just blocking in the main bulk of colours. And then from there I moved outwards using some of my grey pencils to block in the fur around the edge of the eye. And then I started to block in the nose starting with blocking in the shadows with my black polychromos pencil and moving to the mid-tones and then finally the highlighted parts of the nose. And then I smoothed that all out with a little solvent. I used a little zested pencil blend on my cotton bud. I don't use too much solvent, I tend to dab my cotton bud on a spare sheet of paper towel so it's just enough to move the pigment around and soften the overall texture. And then I go back in with the same tones and add a little bit of highlight with my white polychromos pencil. And here you can see me getting started on the head fur. So I started with the light tones first. So I started with the light tones first and then slowly moved into some of the mid-tones, some of the brighter colours such as terracotta and a few yellowy buttery tones in there as well. So all I'm doing with this first initial layer is just blocking in the basic placement of the colours. It really doesn't matter how neat this first layer is, I'm just blocking in where those colours lie. I'm applying the pencil roughly in the direction of the fur as well but it really doesn't matter too much if that's not perfect at this stage. So I started to introduce some burnt sienna which is going to be the main colour for this red panda. I've blocked in a little bit more of that colour in some of the shadowed areas and then saturated more of the overall head fur with more of the same colours I've already used. I just wanted to get plenty of pigment down onto the paper. And then here I'm going in with a little solvent on my cotton bud to smooth out all of that pencil texture. I'm pushing my cotton bud in the direction of the fur and this is resulting in a really nice soft base layer that we can then build upon. And also I think it's worth mentioning that when I do apply solvent on my cotton bud I always start with the lightest tones first and then gradually move into the darker tones just so you don't bleed any darker colours into those lighter areas. So before I start adding some of the fur detail here I'm just adding some burnt umber to the deepest shadows on the left there. And here you can see me going in with a craft knife to map out some of the fur direction. I'm using the slice ceramic knife tool which works really beautifully for applying details on pastel matte. I know it looks really scratchy at the moment and it doesn't really sit right as fur detail but at the moment I'm just plotting out the general fur direction. So here you can see me going in with my raw umber polychromos pencil which is a really nice golden brown tone. And here I'm simply applying a layer of colour over the top of those erased marks. This is helping to not just fill in those erased marks but it also softens them as well. And then doing the same with some of the darker tones. And this is where I'm also starting to neaten up some of the fur strokes as well. Just being careful around the fur of the eye keeping my pencil really sharp and applying some small strokes as well to replicate those really tiny fur strokes around the eye. And then after applying a few shadowed fur strokes I'm going in with my cotton bud again. This time I'm not applying any solvent to this one it's just a dry cotton bud. Just applied really really lightly to soften all of those pencil strokes. And this is where you can see the fur starting to come together really softly and we're starting to eliminate that scratchy sort of look. So for the next layer I'm starting to be a little bit more deliberate with my pencil strokes. Refining some of the details and the shadows with the point of the pencil. As well as going in with my white pencil to apply some of those highlights and white fur strokes that protrude into the background colour. And then choosing some of the richer tones such as terracotta and venetian red. Taking on more of the details before going back in with another layer of the craft knife. And this time around I've been a little bit more careful with the craft knife to pull out some of those tiny little highlights. Especially just underneath the eye making sure to curve the knife around as well so it follows the contour of the cheekbone. And then it's just a case of repeating the layers until I've built up more softness and depth in the fur. So one of the final things I'm doing here is I'm going in with my white polychromos pencil. I'm just pulling out some of the softer highlights that lie on top. So I'm using this quite sparingly, I'm not applying this everywhere it's just a few places here and there. I'm also making sure to add very gentle curves to the fur just to give it that thicker look rather than flat looking. So moving on to the white fur. I started by blocking in some of those really tiny subtle shadows using light grey. Just blocking in the fur direction and then gradually increase the intensity of the grey for the deeper shadows. Then I followed a similar process to the red fur by going over with my craft knife to pull out the lighter fur strokes. And here I'm adding tiny touches of dark sepia for the darkest parts underneath the eye. And then just a little bit of tidying up and tweaking before repeating the whole process with the muzzle fur. So the process for the muzzle fur was similar but also different. Here I'm going in with my cotton bud to soften off the fur strokes but I also applied a little solvent as well. And you can also see here that the general colour tone of the shadows is a little different. I've added some blues and some purple tones in there because white fur is never purely white we've always got a little bit of colour in the shadows. So I added some blue and purple just to give the shadows a little bit of life. And then from here it's just a case of going backwards and forwards between the darks and the lights. Here I'm adding some tiny fur strokes with little curves just underneath the mouth for that slightly dark fur. And then gradually working in some of the details using the craft knife as well as the white pencil. And gradually working in some of the darker greys as well which acts as those tiny little shadows that you find within the lighter fur strokes. So all the time I'm considering where the shadows lie and whether the shadows are dark enough and the highlights are light enough. So this is where I'm going in with my dark sepia just to really amplify that shadow at the back of the muzzle. When it came to drawing the ear this followed a very similar sort of process to the head fur but also a little bit different as well because generally the length of the fur strokes and we have had a few different colours in there as well. So I started by blocking in the main bulk of colours that I could see starting with the shadows and then introducing a little bit of blue and some of the browner tones for the deeper parts of the shadows within white fur. So I used those colours as my base layer. So after a little softening with some solvent I started to work on the transition between the head fur and the ear fur. So here you can see I'm pushing my pencil outwards into the ear fur as well as inwards towards the head fur just to start off that transition. And then much like the white fur on the face I started to block in the fur direction using my grey pencils and then worked on building up the layers between using my cotton bud, my craft knife and my white pencil. My white pencil played quite a heavy role in the ear fur. The actual length of the fur strokes are quite long here so my pencil strokes were also quite long and because of the underlying darker shadows as well this really helped the white to pop. So I made sure that the shadows were dark enough which then enabled the white to shine through as a brighter tone. So the process for the body fur followed a very similar process to what I've done for the head already. I started by blocking in the main colours that I could see starting with those lighter peachy tones towards the top and gradually introducing some red tones in the form of venetian red and terracotta. And then for that really dark fur in the belly I applied a base layer of dark sepia. And then just like I did with the head I went in with a cotton bud and some solvent to blend and smooth all that pigment out. So I've got a nice smooth base layer to work on. And then I proceeded to build up the layers just like I did with the head starting by blocking out the fur direction using my ready tone pencils as well as dark sepia for the dark areas. And you'll see here that my pencil strokes are long to replicate the long fur and ever so gently I'm curving my pencil around just to capture that contour that very gentle curve of the body. Next I'm softening off my fur strokes with a cotton bud. I know it's really tempting to go in with quite a firm pressure here but my pressure is really really soft I'm barely touching the surface. We don't want to eliminate those pencil strokes completely we still want them to look like fur strokes so I don't want to smooth out the pigment too much but just enough a really really light pressure. And then here starts a repetitive process between going in with the various different colour tones, more softening with the cotton bud and then going in with the craft knife to pull out some of the fur details. And again you'll see from this that the fur strokes look quite scratchy and a little bit too sharp so this is where it's important to go back over with a cotton bud and also some further pencil tones just to soften them back in. And to help make the fur look shiny and glossy I'm going in with my white pencil. This is quite a light pressure so I can apply lots of really fine lines and this will act as the subtle highlights that lie on top of the fur and this is where it's important to apply a really really light pressure in order to capture the fineness of that fur. And not just the fineness of the fur but also the thickness too. If you capture some really subtle wavy lines you can give the impression of wavy fur that looks quite thick and luscious. So to avoid me rambling on and repeating what I've already talked about it's more of a repetitive process for the rest of this panda so it's just a case of repeating all of those steps until you're happy with the thickness of the fur and how it looks. But making sure to also focus on the shadow is making sure that they are dark enough because that is what will really help to give the drawing depth. The paws were fairly straightforward to draw. I started by blocking in the claws and then drawing around the edge with some fleshy tones. I then drew in the dark shadows for some contrast, softened off the edges and then mapped out the fur direction. Firstly with my black polychromos pencil and then I went over with my craft knife and some white. These tiny little flyaway hairs were a real dream to draw right on the top of the toes. I made sure to curve my knife around in really small strokes just so that those hairs look nice and wispy. Then I finished off by amplifying the highlights with my white pencil and then just a little bit of tidying up to bring everything together. The small overlapping hairs at the bottom of the head were also really important to overlap onto the chest area. So I've just pulled those out with my knife and then for that softer appearance I'm going in with my white pencil, just pushing the pigment over the top of those erased marks so they look a little softer and also more opaque. So it's just down to those finishing touches now, amplifying some of the shadows, neatening up some of the edges, as well as drawing in the whiskers and any flyaway hairs, that sort of a thing. I also drew in the branch which I'll not go into too much detail with that today but I kept it fairly simple. I didn't want it to distract too much from the actual panda. So I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and found it useful. The full-length tutorial goes into so much more depth than what I've just done in this last 15 minutes, so if you want to follow along to the full-length real-time tutorial where I talk you through literally everything, then the link is in the description box. Until next time, thank you so much for watching, take care and I'll see you on the next one!