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Description

By Maditium : Canine Paw Tutorial. Created with a Wacom Bamboo CTH-470 Tablet in Photoshop Elements 11; Originally 7087 x 2268 px. © Since 2014
NB: This is super old! Might make a new version sometime in the future, but I hope you'll find this useful so long.

Please keep in mind that while this is tutorial is focused on digital tools, it can be applied to traditional methods as well. (◕ᴥ◕)

Sketch

1. Quickly sketch an outline of about how you want the paw the be formed. This means... determine its pose! You can also start with simple lines instead of drawing the outline to determine its pose and create something dynamic.

2. Draw the claws. I like to start with the claws at once, as they can give the paw a whole new expression depending on how they are drawn (Where they "point").

3. Mark the "toes/fingers", and perhaps some muscles... You can go detailed if you wish to!

4. Add the dew claw! NOTE: Hind-/backlegs normally do not have dew claws.

5. Add the paw pads. Depending on the "physics" (pressure, etc.), the paw pads can be visible or not visible when the paw is standing on the ground. As you can see, I drew them visible.

Lineart

6. Lower the opacity of the layer of the sketch, but it has to be comfortably visible to the eye.

7. I created a new layer OVER the sketch, and began drawing the lineart. It's important that the lineart is clean and accurate.

8. The sketch is either hidden or deleted, and we got the lineart alone.

Coloring

9. On a layer UNDER the lineart, we can give our new paw a flat color of your choice.

10. Either if you want to draw a natural animal with natural colors, create your own unique character, or want to draw a specific character, begin vary the paw with some different colors. ^-^

11. Many would call this shading, but I don't. I would say this is making the paw look more "3D", or texturizing some fur. This is very primary! I chose a blue-purple color on a new layer, set on "Multiply". On quite low opacity, but the choice of color or opacity all depends on you and what you think looks best and right for the mood of your artwork.

Shading / Painting

There are many ways to shade, and these are only three examples, out of billions.

12 a).The light source is coming from the left. On a new layer on "multiply", I drew the shadows themselves on the paw.

12 b). The light source is coming about from above, and the opacity is lower than from point 12 a). As you can see, I edited the color of the lineart! Be creative and find some cool things to do with your drawing.

12 c). Here, I deleted the lineart and painted the shadows instead. Lineless painting is something different from drawing.

Hope it was helpful somehow. Hm, this was supposed to only be a paw tutorial, but it ended up explaining more factors... like use of colors. Remember, this is only SOME ways to do things. If you experiment, you will find your own way to do things. Go with what that gives results, and which feels comfortable for you. The boxes to the left are important to read as well. Good luck, and thanks so much for your time.

Tutorial is made by me, Maditium . Do NOT re-upload.

Description

By Maditium : Canine Paw Tutorial. Created with a Wacom Bamboo CTH-470 Tablet in Photoshop Elements 11; Originally 7087 x 2268 px. © Since 2014
NB: This is super old! Might make a new version sometime in the future, but I hope you'll find this useful so long.

Please keep in mind that while this is tutorial is focused on digital tools, it can be applied to traditional methods as well. (◕ᴥ◕)

Sketch

1. Quickly sketch an outline of about how you want the paw the be formed. This means... determine its pose! You can also start with simple lines instead of drawing the outline to determine its pose and create something dynamic.

2. Draw the claws. I like to start with the claws at once, as they can give the paw a whole new expression depending on how they are drawn (Where they "point").

3. Mark the "toes/fingers", and perhaps some muscles... You can go detailed if you wish to!

4. Add the dew claw! NOTE: Hind-/backlegs normally do not have dew claws.

5. Add the paw pads. Depending on the "physics" (pressure, etc.), the paw pads can be visible or not visible when the paw is standing on the ground. As you can see, I drew them visible.

Lineart

6. Lower the opacity of the layer of the sketch, but it has to be comfortably visible to the eye.

7. I created a new layer OVER the sketch, and began drawing the lineart. It's important that the lineart is clean and accurate.

8. The sketch is either hidden or deleted, and we got the lineart alone.

Coloring

9. On a layer UNDER the lineart, we can give our new paw a flat color of your choice.

10. Either if you want to draw a natural animal with natural colors, create your own unique character, or want to draw a specific character, begin vary the paw with some different colors. ^-^

11. Many would call this shading, but I don't. I would say this is making the paw look more "3D", or texturizing some fur. This is very primary! I chose a blue-purple color on a new layer, set on "Multiply". On quite low opacity, but the choice of color or opacity all depends on you and what you think looks best and right for the mood of your artwork.

Shading / Painting

There are many ways to shade, and these are only three examples, out of billions.

12 a).The light source is coming from the left. On a new layer on "multiply", I drew the shadows themselves on the paw.

12 b). The light source is coming about from above, and the opacity is lower than from point 12 a). As you can see, I edited the color of the lineart! Be creative and find some cool things to do with your drawing.

12 c). Here, I deleted the lineart and painted the shadows instead. Lineless painting is something different from drawing.

Hope it was helpful somehow. Hm, this was supposed to only be a paw tutorial, but it ended up explaining more factors... like use of colors. Remember, this is only SOME ways to do things. If you experiment, you will find your own way to do things. Go with what that gives results, and which feels comfortable for you. The boxes to the left are important to read as well. Good luck, and thanks so much for your time.

Tutorial is made by me, Maditium . Do NOT re-upload.