Furries Furever

Jared Hodges & Lindsay Cibos

Bonus Content:
Caribou Dancer

Cincinnati, Ohio

www.impact-books.com

Demonstration

Caribou Dancer
Bonus Content by Lindsay Cibos!
Every creature makes and is made by their
environmentthis anthro caribou makes
the most of hers. Caribou, members of
the deer family, are hardy, cold weather
specialists, with sturdy hooves and thick,
double-layered fur. With a body well suited
to the frigid Arctic, she performs a traditional dance routine, outdoors in the dead
of winter, and in minimal garb, all without

freezing her keister off! While drawing

may not come as naturally to humans, as
frolicking in snowdrifts comes to her, practice makes perfect! In this tutorial, Ill walk
you through the artistic process, taking the
character from rough concept to finished
colors. So, whatever the temperature outside, warm up your drawing hand and lets
get started!

Brainstorm Character Design

Start by doing some exploratory

thumbnails. The term refers to the
size of the drawingstypically no
more than a few inches. The benefit
of keeping things small, is it lets you
can sketch quickly, great for trying
out lots of ideas, and seeing the big
picture, without getting caught up
in unimportant details.

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Hair and Face

Study the animal youre drawing
for accuracy and inspiration.
I drew her hair in thick segments
to simulate the caribous shaggy
white neck fur.

Poses
I find it helps to develop the various aspects of the character design
separatelypose, attitude, body type, hair, facial details, and attire
before attempting to put it all together, especially if you only have a
fuzzy concept for the character. I had a couple different ideas for the
caribou, from gentle friend of the forest, surrounded by birds and
small animals, to defiant defender, all of which somehow solidified
into her being a timid but passionate dancer. Thats the creative process though; sometimes you dont know where itll take you.

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Costume
Next up, attire! The design of the outfit is an opportunity
to say something about the characters personality and
interests, just as the clothes you wear make a statement
about you! Since the caribou clearly wanted to dance,
I dressed her in a belly dancer-esque costume with
flowing tassels, perfect for conveying motion without
obscuring her figure.

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Mix and Match

Look over your thumbnail sketches, and combine your
favorites into a single rough drawing to see if the outfit,
pose, and other details gel together. This will be the
roadmap for the final image, so be sure youre happy
with it before moving forward!

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Sketch the Body Position

On a fresh sheet of paper, lets

rebuild our thumbnail caribou at
full size. First, sketch a sweeping
line of action that expresses the
motion of her dance. Then draw a
circle for the head; add guidelines
for the eyes and front of face.
Build up the rest of the torso with
simple shapes. Draw a line down
the center of the form to show the
twist of her spine.

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Build up the Shapes

Sketch an almond-shaped eye

resting on the heads horizontal
guideline. Next, draw the curve of
the brow, extruding out from the
front of the face, and sloping down
to form the muzzle. Attach the ear
and antlers towards the back of the
head; use guidelines to align the tips.
Then draw the basic shape of the
arms and legs, posed in a graceful
pirouette. Caribou have four toes on
each foot: a pair of hoofs that touch
the ground, and above that, a pair
of dewclaws for extra support in the
snow. Finally, add a fluffy tail bump
on her rump!

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Sketch the Clothing

Sketch the basic lines of her outfit and accessories. Its a good idea on
focus wrapping the clothing around
the body shapes correctly, before
laying on the details. Sketch her hair
in soft clumps, pulling to the side to
suggest movement as she twirls on
her hooves. You can further convey
motion by drawing the skirt light and
floaty, lifting away from the body. For
the braided tassels, start by sketching
a series of overlapping spheres.

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Add Details

Work your way through the

drawing, refining your lines and adding detail. Try to balance the pressure
of your strokes; use light pencil lines
for softer elements such as her hair,
and bold lines for shadowed areas
like under her head. Further emphasize the liveliness of her dance by
incorporating some dangling jewelry
throughout the design. Finish the
braided tassels by drawing a dividing
line down the center of each circular
segment. As an aside, dont be afraid
to deviate from the original concept;
I omitted the perching bird because
I felt the design worked just as well
without it. When youre done, erase
your guidelines.

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Finish with Color

Decide on a color palette for your

image. Im going with the typical caribou coloration of brown and white,
plus fuchsia for her frocks to bring
more color into the picture. Then
paint your image with the base colors
youve selected. Next, determine the
location of the light source(s) (here,
a mostly overhead light), and place
the shadow tones accordingly. In this
case, the darkest areas are around
creases, on the underside of objects,
and areas where something is blocking the light, like underneath the
arm, neck, and the skirtbasically,
wherever theres an absence of light.
Then layer on the highlight tones
where the light is strongest; place an
extra bit of highlight in the eye and
silver jewelry to really make them
shine. Finally, blend out any harsh
brushstrokes for a smooth finish!

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Check Out...

Draw Furries
Embark on journey of discovery as you learn to draw furry
features, faces and full figures! Challenge yourself with
different tips and techniques meant for drawing a furry,
anthropomorphic cat, dog, horse, rodent or bird, then
learn how to blend human and animal features to cap it
all off!

Draw More Furries

Learn how to give your animal character human features,
and explore tips and tricks for creating furry, feathered
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how to define your own furry drawing style!

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