Adobe's Photoshop is a great tool to add a "Fur Texture" to your art work, either it be scanned from paintings, inkings, pencil art, digital art, digital painting, etc. This tutorial is to help you with the "basics" of fur texture. There are many techniques and ways to perform this with photoshop, but here i will discuss only the simplest form of technique i use for my art work. *(The Tiger's tail in the image above will be used as a sample demo pic to illustrate the steps). It uses a noise filter, smudge tools , Burn & dodge tools, all found in most photoshop versions. Starting with your scan, in PSD format open in photoshop, begin with the "color" of the part of the pic you wish to add the texture too. To select the color or portion of the pic to add the beginning of the texture too, click on the "select tab located in the tool bar at the top of your photoshop window, then click on the "Color Range..." button in the drop-down window. With the Eye-dropper tool , click on the color (the area you wish to apply the texture too) in your image. You will then see a "negative" of the color you wish to select in the Color Range window.*(See Image below)* *(Use the Basic Settings Tips displayed in Blue Text on the bottom of this page to guide you with what settings to set the fuzziness ajuster at.) Then click ok.

*** TIP:... If you wish to add texture to only a particular part of a pic with out affecting other parts with the same color, (ex: ad texture to a brown tail without adding texture to a piece of clothing of the same exact color) hide all layers that the clothing, objects, background are on, that have the same color of the part you wish to add texture too. Or you could "Pre-select" a part by using the "Lasso Tool" , and drawing a selection just outside the border of the object you wish to add the texture to, befor using the color selection window.

Once you see the "moving dotted selection line around the part you wish to add texture, click on your "Filter" tab in the tool bar, highlight "Noise", then click on "Add Noise". You will then see a new window that displays a Preview, and some settings. *(See Image Below)* First select "Gaussian", and check the "Monocromatic" box. Next ajust the Amount % percentage slider to roughly between 25 % and 90 %, this setting you will need to experiment with, as it varies from colors, shades, etc. to get the desired results. 35 % is a good practice range for most base colors. Click OK to save the noise. the results should look simmilar to sample image # 2 below.

Once you have the noise added, use the "deselect" button in the Select tab to deselect to object. Go to your "Smudge Tool" found in the tools window at the left of your screen, and Select the "Smudge Tool" from the tool window at the left side of your screen, A good size to start with on the solid internal area is about 65 pixel soft round , and set the pressure between 20 to 40 %(if your image is aproxximately 100 DPI at 8.5 x 11 inches size, The image size will affect what size of brush you will need to use*) use mouse or pen tablet with the smudge tool with strokes in the direction you wish the fur to align, *(See Sample image # 3 below)* . Here is where you will have to do lots of experimenting , to get the "feel" of the smudge tool, its easier to use larger brush sizes with lower pressures to creat the fur in large , solid areas , and use smaller brushes with higher pressures for the detailing and edges. Start with a small area, to see what results you have, (Take note of the direction arrows in illustration # 3 below, it works better to "click on and drag" the brush in the same direction of where natural fur travels ) if you are not happy with the settings and your results, use the "step Backwards" (Alt + Ctrl + Z ) will erase the smudge steps you made, up to the number of times you set in the History Cache earlier*) the key thing to do is " practice " , it takes patience and time, but usually pays with good results *

After you have achieved the fur texture you like with the smudge tool, *(Image # 4 above)* and comfortable with a technique, you can move on to adding shades & highlights, using a set of tools called the "Burn Tool & Dodge Tool". The Burn tool basically "darkens" the color hue, and the Dodge tool lightens the color shade. with a little practice and experimenting, you can give an image a "three dimensional" appearance, by adding shades and highlights to your image. As naturaly light generally comes from a source from one direction, an object casts shadows on the side away from the light source, and the side towards the light source will be highlighted. "directional Shading & 3D appearance can be difficult to achieve if not performed correctly.

Begining with the Burn tool found in your photoshop tool window at the left of your screen, *(The pinching hand icon)* practice on a COPY of your textured image, (save a copy of the un-shaded image in the event you are not satified with your results) begin with a area of your image that is opposite of an imaginary light source. (EX: select a corner of your image that will be for example the sun, as seen in image # 5, the "light" is only for reference, to determine the shading direction. All sides facing that corner should be highlighted, while sides facing away from that light should be shaded,)

Both the burn tool and Dodge tool has settings that affect the results of your image, once you select the tool, a setting bar will apear below the upper tool bar in your monitor window. You will see a standard brush size selector, "Range" selector, and "Exposure" selector. The Brush size works the same as most tools like the air brush, paint brush, etc. The "Range" selector has generally three settings, "Shadows, Midtones, & Highlights". Each setting will affect the different hues of a area or color, using the burn tool with "Shadows" selected will darken the color of the darker pixels in the fur texture color, the "Midtones" will darken the base , or mid-color, and the "highlights" will darken the lighter shades of a given color. Again, experiment here. Each Range setting has a different affect on each color of the spectrum. For practice, begin with using "Midtones" with the Burn tool.

Next is the "Exposure" setting, basically it determines on how much "burning" or "lighting" the tool will do in one pass. (alot like a pressure setting with the air brush tool). I generally use between 10 to 40 % Exposure when i use the burn tool, again experiment with different colors & shades, as different results can be expected. *(An example of the results with the burn tool , set with "Midtones", and 15 % Exposure can be seen in image # 5 below, in the area of the arrow , on opposite sides of the imaginary light source.)*

*** TIP:...for practicing shading & highlighting, place a simple object like a rubber ball, on the top of your monitor, then place a desk lamp some where above and right of ball. draw a circle in photoshop, color it the same as the ball, and shade the circle as you see the shadows & highlights that appear on the ball above your monitor. Practicing with drawing & shading real objects will fine tune your skills and give you a better understanding light sources. Experiment by placing the lamp at different angles, taking note of how it affects the shades & highlights of the ball. simply draw, color, and shade what you "see".

The Burn tool is used mainly for the "shades & Shadows" of your image, while the "Dodge" tool is used for highlighting. Next selext the Dodge tool after practicing with the burn tool. The Dodge tool has the same settings as the burn tool , only it does the oposite of the burn tool, it "lightens" instead of "darkening" the color you work with. Select the dodge tool by right clicking on the burn tool, a side window will appear, (select the icon that looks like a black ball on a stick, see the icon on the bottom left corner of image # 6 below).

For practice select "Midtones or highlights" Range setting, and anywhere between 10 to 20 % Exposure. work with areas facing the light source , *( see image # 6 below)*, again practice & experiment with this tool. Practice by shading a small area, if you aren't satisfied , step back by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Z to erase your steps. Experimentation is the key here.

After a little practice, you should see a "3D" appearance to your work, like in image # 6 above. Tails make good "practice" images, as they are simple to draw, have simple dimensions, and are a part of most animals & caracters. Good references to use for beggining fur texture art is using plushies, set one on the top of your monitor, draw it, color it, and create the fur as you see it on the plushie. Below are some basic steps, settings and tips for you to use to practice with . Experimentation and practice is you best tool, get a feel for the photoshop filters, brushes, tools, etc. A pen tablet helps somtimes, but fur texture can be done easily with a standard mouse. I hope this basic toutorial was of some help for you, to create the detail and realisim of fur & hair in your art, any comments on this tutorial can be placed in my Guestbook from the main page.......FirestormSix *

- > Basic pre-settings: - - Make sure all other programs & applications are closed. - - Set History Cache at 50 or higher , if System memory allows. - - Set RAM usage at 60 % min.