hair cut

Hair cut? XD

very nice so far! The fur detail is looking great. If I were to make a suggestion, perhaps try adding a few hairs of different colours and a bit more shading to make it a little more realistic. And perhaps use a harder brush for around the eyes and nose, just to make them look a little more crisp. Apart from that, it looks awesome. You are certainly on your way to awesome realism, I rarely see artists here that can paint fur this well. Can't wait to see it finished!

Thanks a lot! I was thinking i would do the light hairs first, then add in some darker ones. I also though i should have given it more contrast in the shading, i kept adding more and eventually thought "i've added so much now i must be starting to overstep the mark". I don't think i'll be able to put in much more shading without having to re-do some of the fur now, this is because it's all on 1 layer (apart from the hood and background).

Thanks for the help!!! :D

You're very welcome! :) I usually do the darker fur first and then progressively paint in lighter fur, but it takes forever, and of course we all have our own styles. I tend to add slight shading with big soft brushes, which means I do paint in fur several times until it looks right. It's very time consuming xD And as for layers, I admire your bravery...I get very worried I'm going to stuff something up so I make heaps of layers, on average about 100 :S The least amount of layers, the better, though, or your computer will lag like crazy (like mine does).

Also as a sidenote, experiment a bit with the layers and brushes blending modes. You'd be amazed how you can make things look photographic simply by playing around with modes (if you can't find them, let me know and I'll explain it a bit better). I mostly use 'color dodge', that's how I get much of my bright highlights. I should make a tutorial one day, I suck at putting things into words :P

Keep up the great work!

i see! i didn't paint any dark fur (as you can see x3) before going ahead with the light, i just thought by setting lowish opacity, the underlying shading would come through and provide the darker hairs.

100 layers for something like the assassin picture!? XD You mentalist! I used to use LOADS of layers, but my laptop just... dies! Also With just the 1 layer, if i think something looks wrong, i can just paint straight over it, instead of having to sift through loads of layers.

I don't know what 'colour dodge' is, but i've heard a ot of artists say that the burn and dodge tools makes things look almost plasticy...... ok i just found color dodge, as a layer blending thing, it looks pretty cool but it doen't really work for just one layer, maybe if i added an extra shading layer and used colour dodge on THAT it would work...

Anyway, do you have your AIM thing up and running yet?

Sometimes that works, and I have done that quite a bit, but if you're not planning to paint in any dark furs then one way to make the light furs stand out more is to change the colours slightly. Or I put my paint brush on colour dodge mode (not the layer, the brush). I never use dodge/burn, they're good for when you're learning, but they do make things look quite plasticy.

You make a good point, using 1 layer XD I ALWAYS have the problem where I want to change something and I can't find the layer. Sometimes it helps to put the layers in groups, but that doesn't help the computer with lagging or dying :\

When I get the time I will make a simple tutorial about those modes, as they do some cool stuff if you use them properly. I've only started using them in the past year though, I never knew what they could do!

I'm actually staying with people at the moment so I cant install AIM on their computer, but I have it on my computer and when we move in to our new house (Tuesday) I can set up the internet and get on AIM :)

I think the best method, if you can get it right, is a mixture of the two techniques, then the shading comes through, and it gives the fur a more realistic look. I finished this yesterday (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3992797/), then increased the contrast a little bit and had a play around with the hue and saturation, i'm starting to regret it slightly XD I can't put my finger on just why, but the fur on the top of the head looks a little off.

Also, you seem to paint WAY less hairs than i do, looking at the two pieces (assassin and hypnotise).

I was talking to Amber Hill (Vantid) during a livestream she was doing, and she said she only uses one layer, and if she messes up, she'll just paint over it, that's why i started minamizing my layers.

I think a lot of people would find a tutorial really useful, but you wanna be careful not to give yourself too much competition :P I don't think my version of photoshop (7.0) has that effect for the brush, i'll have to have a search.

Yeah, i remembered you saying something about the 15th, i think you might be able to get on AIM using e-buddy, but i'm not sure.