[BigUncleT13]

Ok so here's the deal, I made a dog on illustrator and I want the ears to be gray-ish. If you look up Hank the dog, that's who I'm trying to match as far as the ears go. I'm not sure how to do that with AI. I tried a gradient but it just looks weird. I've never done anything this "fancy" before on AI so any help is greatly appreciated. I made the design what it is so I own it. No problems with that. I'm not asking anyone to do it for me, I'm just asking HOW I add the scraggly gray fur on the ears. And maybe the dog beard as I like to call it. I've attached an picture of the design so far. I have also attached a picture of Hank, and because Hank is a dog, and MANY dogs look like him, there are no rights to his "look" as you will be able to tell, my picture does not look exactly like Hank. The Bichon Frise breed all look alike. So Im just trying to get Hanks shading on his ears on my dog. Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[Jarod]

Use halftone dots, make the dots bigger towards the bottom, and smaller towards the top, this will create a gradient look.

 

[BigUncleT13]

I was afraid that would be the solution, I have absolutely no idea on how to do that....

 

[BigUncleT13]

UPDATE: I tried making halftones and they were not smooth at all. They had lines in them. Like rows of the dots were missing. I followed 2 how to's with the same result...

 

[miktoxic]

use the pen tool and make some squiggly stokes within the ear on the left side. no fill, grey stroke (play with size of stroke). use the brush palette to select an artist brush (prob ink). once you have a stoke that you like make sure it is rotated the right way etc. duplicate it by select/option/drag then resize it accordingly
so you get the idea that it is hair. you'll prob need like 6 strokes at diffent lengths and angles to get that idea across. (make sure you always lock down the layer or sub-layer that the dog artwork you have is on, so that when you are in there adjusting your strokes you don't keep selecting that dog art by mistake).

then select all those strokes in the left ear and option drag to the right ear. then under the rotate tool you'll find the reverse tool use that to reverse those strokes and then fit them in the right ear. you might haveto do a little rotating or resizing if the ears aren't the same size.

you also might want to think about the color of your dog stroke. maybe it should be a dark grey? well before i jump too far ahead how were you thinking of having this printed? are you doing transfers, silkscreen.....?

 

[BigUncleT13]

I was hoping to screen print it. Good news is it could pass for the dog with out the gray ears, I just hate to put something less than perfect out there. You know???

 

[miktoxic]

I was hoping to screen print it. Good news is it could pass for the dog with out the gray ears, I just hate to put something less than perfect out there. You know???

i know exactly what you're saying.

but right now all you have is a line drawing. you're going to have to add something to make the design work. some text? some shading within or outside the dog?

i would make the outline stroke of the dog thicker than what it is now and then play with the other strokes inside the dog.

 

[BigUncleT13]

Oh yeah, its not just a dog for the final design. Im going to add some stuff to make it clear who it is. Yeah Ive been messing with the outer stroke, definitely like it on the thicker side. Its far from done but youve got to start somewhere!

 

[MadArtist]

Do a detailed pen & ink drawing, scan and clean it in Photoshop, then have it traced.

 

[BigUncleT13]

I think Ive got to figured out perfectly, thanks for the help everyone!!!