Okay, so your character is shaded and highlighted. With the base color still selected, use a fur brush set to an appropriate size to start "brushing" the fur in the direction it flows where you have different colors touching, using the smudge tool. For those who may nt know, fur brushes usually look like an group of dots that act like a comb as you paint with it. Don't over do this step, you are just breaking up the color demarcation at this point. Now, at this time is when I usually deselect the color select that is on the base color. Now, again with a fur brush and the smudge tool selected, carefully go around the outside edges of your character create strands and tufts of fur that would be protruding. I said carefully, because it is too easy to get over zealous and your character will end up looking like the have stuck their finger in an electrical outlet. It is a very good idea to have references to build a good working knowledge of how hair flows on different parts of the body, both animals and human, since anthros are a combination of both. Ok, so your char should now look slightly fluffy, and a little jagged. This is the basis for more layers that will later at detail an volume to your fur. You may also notice that after brushing your subject, some of the fur now protrudes beyond the shaded and highlighted areas. That's ok! Now going to the shade and light layers, brush the shadows and highlights the same way you did the base colors, again brushing in the direction the hair grows. Now, I usually create a few different layers for individual things as I go along and start working on those at this point. These include such things as eyes, nose, teeth, mouth, claws, naughty bits, and a layer called details. Each thing gets its own layer for reasons mentioned earlier. I won't get into all the ways of painting every little item I just listed, as those can get lengthy in themselves. Instead I am going to focus mostly on the rest of the fur. I will say, however, that I use the details layer more or less as a secondary shading layer. This is where I will use the airbrush tool set at varying sizes and opacities to define things like creases, eyelids, space between toes or fingers, you get the idea I think. So, I do something similar with the fur. I will create a layer I call fur detail. Using a fur brush, I lay in lots of little lines and squiggles of variations of the base colors. To get the colors, I first take the eye dropper tool and select one of the base colors from the flats layer. Then I open up the color map and choose a slightly lighter or darker color than the base. This keeps the color within a similar range and helps avoid harsh contrasts. Subtlety is the key here. You want to see a noticeable difference in color, but not so much that it looks as if you are adding an entirly new color to your chars coat. Select two to three different colors for each base color to stroke in over them. Use the pen tool to get into tight spaces and areas that don't require a stroke as big as the fur brush makes. Remember to brush with the direction the fur grows, and to keep the strokes irregular and different lengths for best results. Make sure you have switched back to the fur detail layer before you start painting in these tufts and strands. Now, that step was rather tedious and can take a while, but patience will certainly reward you. You subject mow appears to be covered in scratches in varying colors of the base color, right? If you answered yes, then please continue. If you answered no, then go back over the steps and try again until you can answer yes, then you may also continue. So, ready for some magic? Take your fur brush, and using the smudge tool, brush those scratches just like you have with the other steps. The little lines should blur and stretch, creating the appearance of individual hairs, more or less. Less is more, so don't go over it too much, all you are doing here is blending and eliminating most of the jagged-ness to the hairs. On another layer, name it furshadow or something you feel is fitting. On this layer we will do just that, at shadow and depth to your fur. References really help here to see how the fur gathers in tufts on the actual species which is the basis for your char. Using the airbrush tool, start painting in shadows that that would be created by tufts of hair blocking light as it hits your subject. I can't stress enough how important references are for this so that you can decide what shapes an where those shadows will lay. So, once that is done, take the fur brush and smudge into the edges of the shadows to add further detail. You can do the same thing with highlights if there are any particular areas that could use some extra attention. And that's basically it. I go back and tweak the light and shade layers a little if necessary so everything works together nicely. Any questions?
