Using a Fibre Pen for scratching Hair/fur

Rick Martin · Aug 27, 2017

I think it made me do a better job yesterday. Going to practice another one today

Micha der Wolf · Aug 27, 2017

beanpoleuk said: ↑

Thank you Micha glad to help, just trying to 'spread the love' as airbrush tutor would say

Sent from my SM-J500FN using Tapatalk
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It works!

PogArt · Jun 29, 2018

beanpoleuk said: ↑

I tend to use a 2mm fibre pen for hair/fur using a fibre pen rather than the more traditional Exacto blade or scalpel for scratching, the results seem fairly good so thought I would share how I use the pen.

All I ever use is a 2mm fibre clutch pen ..
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The first thing I do is position the refill so only about a 1mm or so is exposed then hold the pen 90 at right angles to a piece of 400 grit emery cloth and sand the tip down until it is flat with the end. This gives me a nice flat end to the cluster of fibres and a sharp edge .
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To get a nice fine line you don’t want the fibres spreading so I position the tip so that just 2mm or so is exposed , this means the clutch mechanism is keeping the end of the fibres close together, then I just use only the edge of the tip (hold the pen at approx. 45 degrees), so that just the sharp edge is scratching the surface.
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Using gentle light sweeping movements you can get quite nice fine hairs, as the fibres wear and the edge dulls so I just turn the pen tip a little bit and use another part of the edge.
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In my opinion this produces nice fine tapered hairs with a soft look rather the stark scratched line you get with the end of a scalpel blade.

By just ‘dabbing’ the surface you get very short hairs such as those around the nose of a furry animal
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Bear in mind all these examples are just one layer of hair texture, you would then mist over these textures with a colour then add another layer and keep going until you get the depth you want, (I usually put down 3 layers).

If I then extend the tip and allow the fibres to spread it is then possible to produce softer wider hair textures.
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These techniques with the fibre pen work as shown here on Claybord, Gesso coated MDF and synthetic paper , you just have to be a little careful with schoellershammer g4 paper otherwise you will tear the paper and a more pressure is needed.

Varying the amount of pressure you use also affects the final result, use a very , very light touch you can achieve super fine gently hairs.

Hope this helps
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I’ve just went through your keen tutorial Steve...
Silly me!
I’m using the same fibre pen for many months,but I have never used it your way?!
This advice,will let me work with the fibre pen, even more superior to what I used to do
Thank you for sharing your great ideas Steve

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