First of all, hope everyone had a good x-mas. secondly, Just a small question to ask all of those that paint hair/fur in postwork. Ok, this is my FIRST attempt at painting anything like fur/hair in postwork so bear with me. And ignore everything else in the pic..ie background etc..just wanted to kill the white Ok...The question.. When I paint the fur at the rendered image size(twice that of posting size), it seems to look fine, it flows etc, but when I reduce the image, I seem to lose all the detail, and the fur becomes...lifeless! short lengths etc (see image) I was wondering is there a better way to paint it... ie do I use a larger brush when working in twice the size, make my strokes longer, so when I reduce the image the flow of the fur doesn't seem to be lost..? Is there a certain amount of pressure I should use for the smudge brush..? At the mo I'm working in anything from 5%-25% I've seem some fantastic images posted on here where the fur looks superb, it flows.. Any help/advice from you guys/gals would be great, so thanks in advance :)

When I use the smudge brush, I make a duplicate of the fur base first just in case and then I use my fave small hair brush smudged at 68-75%. As for length, I go several lengths that way it doesn't look too fixed in size.... When I start to get a soft furry look, I then take the medium color of the fur and airbrush with a 1 pixel brush on a new layer, and just draw scatterings of lines to enphasize the flow. I repeat the same thing two more time only I set the brush to screen on one, and multiply on the other. When all done, I then take a very soft burn brush set at 2-3% midtones and burn the edges, so it gives more dimension.... One little thing I do when I reduce it and lose some of the detail. I create a duplicate and sharpen then I just reduce the opacity on the layer a little so it is so harsh, ans then I just erase the parts I don't want in there out..... Man I hope this makes sense.... I've been partying all night celebrating Cleveland win and playoff berth..... my head is kinda fuzzy and furry.... Dee AKA Ladydawg