How to Draw Fur & Feathers With Colored Pencil

Strengthen your colored pencil skills when creating portraits of your beloved pets or feathered friends with help from artist and expert Cynthia Knox. If you find yourself captivated by the glossy sheen of fur or the vibrancy of feathers but don’t know how to capture these elements in your artwork, welcome! In this video, Cynthia shows you exactly how to get the most out of your colored pencils when re-creating fur and feathers.

Follow along as Cynthia walks you step-by-step through three different examples, and shares her favorite pencil colors to keep on hand when drawing pet portraits To start, Cynthia creates long, sleek fur using firmer pencil pressure and the “burnishing” technique to achieve a highly realistic effect. Then, you’ll see how lighter pencil pressure and more sporadic pencil strokes are used to achieve short, wispy, fuzzy-looking fur—the kind often seen on baby animals, hamsters, and other fluffy critters. In the last demonstration, Cynthia guides you through drawing dynamic feathers by focusing on accurate shadows that create dimension.