Coloring Fur With Distress Inks Pt 1

Hi! I am going to show you the way I color fur with distress inks. Distres inks are perfect for coloring fur because they have a variety of very realistic earth hues which work perfectly. In Part One of this tutorial, I will be walking you through the brown kitty on this very cute digi image by Chrissy Armstrong which you can purchase through Squigglefly. (see the "links I love" on the left column)
So to get started, the tools of the trade. I use the following:
A size 1 synthetic round brush by Princeton
A glass ash tray for holding and rinsing my brush
An acrylic block for a palette and
Distress Inks in Pumice Stone, Frayed Burlap, Scattered Straw and Worn Lipstick

To get started, color the entire brown cat all over with Pumice stone. It won't look like much at this ponit but will start coming alive with every layer you put down.


And then go over it again in Pumice Stone, paying attention to where the shadows would fall and putting more color down in those areas as you can see below. Remember, a cat is a 3 dimentional object so try to picture in your mind's eye where the belly would bulge and make those areas lighter.


Now is the time to start adding a bit of frayed burlap to darken the shadows a bit more... see, its starting to come together now.



And to highlight, I used Scattered straw lightly over the entire image. This helped the cat's fur color not look so "flat", as if she was using a cheap box of hair color but gave her some dimention. A bit of Worn Lipstick helps to color in her nose, paws, an dthe delicate area around her ears.

What do you think?
In Part 2 we'll move on to the bottom kitty which will be an orange tabby.