Today I’m diving into a topic that I love to talk about and that is painting techniques for pet portraits. Specifically I want to show how you can achieve different hair and fur textures with your brushes to capture long, short and curly hair. So let’s dive in!

Watercolor Brushes for Pet Portraits

You don’t need a lot of different brushes to create a variety of fur textures. I actually paint with a medium to small pointed round synthetic brush for nearly all of my portraits. This helps to simplify my painting process and allows me to get into a better flow rather than switching brushes throughout a painting.

My favorite brushes for pet portraits are:

• Sizes 6-10 Pointed Round Synthetic Brushes
• Size 000 Fine Liner Synthetic Brush

If you’re curious on the exact brand of brushes that I use, you can find all of my favorite supplies over in my Amazon Storefront here.

Anytime I paint a dog or cat, I always paint in the direction that the hair appears on the pet. This helps to give a 3D subject, like a dog or cat, dimension and realism.

To achieve different fur textures such as short, curly, long or wavy pet portraits, it really comes down the the amount of pressure (how thin or thick of strokes) and the length and direction of the strokes. When it comes to painting long fur, I like to build up layers with long thin strokes using the point of my brush with little pressure.

When painting short fur dog and cat breeds, I use more of the side of my brush to create a wash and then once the wash dries, I’ll use the wet on dry technique to paint very thin and short strokes of hair in areas on top of the wash.

For curly hair dogs, I will use more of the point of my brush in wavy, U shaped stokes, making some strokes thicker (more pressure) and some thinner (less pressure) for a natural look of the hair.

So let me show you real examples of portraits that capture different fur textures in watercolor.

How to Paint a Yellow Lab with Short Fur Texture

When painting a yellow lab, to create the short fur texture, I like to build up light layers of washes with a few thin, short strokes on the edges of those flat shapes to show very little, short hair texture. Once those layers dry, I’ll go back with a small pointed round detail brush to add a few thin short strokes on top of the layers to create more short tiny hairs.

The key to painting a dog with short fur is to not over do painting hair strokes. Painting shapes rather than individually layering a lot of short thin strokes is what will create a short fur texture. I find if I paint too many tiny strokes, it can be too distracting from the dog’s important features.

How to Paint a Golden Doodle with Curly Hair Texture

When painting a golden doodle that has a very curly fur texture, I like to build the curls in various wavy motions, always painting in the direction that the hair appears, using both thin and thick strokes. Through building the layers with these thin and thick wavy strokes, the curls start to come to life and depth of the hair begins to form.

Once I have a general map of the hair painted, I will go back to areas that need to be darker such as around the eyes, where the face meets the ears and under the chin. This helps to create dimension in the dog’s face and this depth is a big part of creating a realistic pet portrait.

At the end of the portrait process, I love to go back with my fine liner detail brush and paint highlighted thin curly strokes with the Dr. Martin’s PH Bleed Proof White ink. This white ink is very opaque and will make those highlights really pop around the face.

How to Paint a Spaniel with Long, Wavy Fur Texture

When painting a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, the concept of painting the fur is similar to the golden doodle but rather than painting in tighter U shape lines, I’ll paint longer, wavy strokes. Using a medium pointed round brush, I’m able to paint thin and thick strokes in these wavy motions which helps to create different sections of the waves.

Once the first layer of wavy hairs has been painted, I’ll go back and add mid tones and darker values to the areas that need more shadows and depth. I’m able to do this by mixing up darker paint colors and also loading my brush with more paint and less water to thin it. Just like any pet portrait, making sure to add these dark values between the wavy hair and where the ears meet the face is essential to capturing depth in a 3D subject like a dog.

At the end of every portrait, I love to create highlights with the Bleed Proof white ink and a fine liner brush. I’ll run a few highlights over some of the lightest wavy hairs in the dog, but being careful not to over do this white ink.

Try painting realistic fur in watercolor!

In the end, I love using just a couple of small to medium pointed round brushes that have a nice “snap” to the bristles. The bristles on my brushes aren’t super soft so I can get that control and spring when painting thin strokes and details. 

I hope you found these fur painting tips helpful in your watercolor pet portrait journey. If you’d like to see these painting techniques in action, you can watch the How to Paint Dog Fur in Watercolor YouTube video on my channel.

If you’re in the beginner stages to painting pet portraits and are looking for more tips, I put together a Complete Beginner’s Guide to Watercolor Pet Portraits that you can download for free.