This tutorial will outline the method I use to paint both long and short fur, in acrylics on illustration board. Materials used include professional acrylic paints, hot-press illustration board, and sable/ synthetic mix brushes in sizes ranging from 000 to 7.

Step 1: Rough colour
I'm painting my favourite cat here, a lion. To get the ball rolling I painted tawny gold in big rough strokes. Some paint goes over the outlines, but it doesn't matter- I'll neaten it up later. The mane is very loosely suggested.
Usually I'd paint the background first, but in this case I still wasn't sure about where the background elements were going to go.

Step 2: Adding some darks
This big male lion is starting to take shape now, with some dark burnt umbers added into the shadowed left-hand side of the image, and the mane. The ears are suggested with burnt umber as well. The brushstrokes are still very loose and choppy, and the paint is quite thick. Although it may be a good idea to paint "thin to thick" with acrylics, I tend to use thick paint right from the start.

Step 3: Starting to add detail
It's tempting to paint the eyes in early, so I added more darks around the eyes and nose using a mix of burnt umber and grey. The eyes were moved and changed shape a bit to make them even. A good way to check the balance of your work is to hold it up in a mirror. The reflected image often exposes problems you didn't know existed.
Darker streaks in the mane were painted to establish the fur direction, and dark washes strengthened the light source.

Step 4: More details
I started adding fur texture around the muzzle and shadowed side of the face. Short strokes with a very small brush created a fuzzy texture. I find it easiest to start off around the nostrils or eyes, which are both areas with lots of detail, and go from there. I painted less detail in the cheeks and forehead.
The texture of the fur at the moment resembled moss in parts, so slightly longer, finer, tapered strokes would be needed to fix this when the highlights were applied.

Step 5: Here's one I prepared earlier
Many brushstrokes later, the lion looked furry. Large, thick brushstrokes were used for the mane, as opposed to small, thin ones for the face, as longer hair tends to clump. Keep in mind fur growth patterns- for example, hair on the muzzle came in from both sides to form a low ridge down the centre.
Although it may look quite detailed, there are large areas of the lion with little detail. These include parts of the shadowed areas of the face, and parts of the muzzle. I worked from dark to light, adding the highlights and whiskers last.

All content copyright Donna Quinn.