Some people asked for this so here it is. I'm bad at explaining so try to follow up:
Info: Paint Tool Sai and round brush. (any program that has a round brush and layers works however, like photoshop or gimp)
1. Sketch the character and flat colour it. 2 layers: lineart, colour.
2. Do basic shading and stuff (recommend to use water & blur tools on this). 4 layers now: overlay tones, shading, lineart, colour.
3. Merge all layers. Add fur shapes with darker tones. Long fur tends to gather into tufts and is messy, follow the fur direction and how the fur would act in different positions. I can't teach you how fur acts, look at real life animals for that and study. Short fur doesn't gather into tufts as easily.
4. Add lighter tones and a little messyness inside each fur tuft. 1 layer.
5. Add more details and depth to shades, clean edges with background's colour brush, not eraser. Add single furs around. 1 layer.
6. More details etc.. Also check that the original colours have stayed how they should look on the character. Use eye and not codes to see if colours are correct. 1 layer.
And done. Sometimes I use textures with overlay on pictures to make them look cool.
Here's some drawings I've used this technique on:
[link] (short & long fur, feline)
[link] (long fur, canine)
[link] (short & medium lenght fur, feline)
[link] (short fur, feline)
[link] (short & long fur, feline)
[link] (medium lenght fur, generic)
(links to FA because I copied the text from my submission over there, but same arts can be found from my gallery over there aswell!)
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
but thank you for sharing
[link]