I drew lines around my images before, then it occurred to me that that isn't realistic. This is my first effort at just drawing without staying in the lines. This is Daiyu, Chinese for black jade. I now, the hair below her left ear isn't quite right.

gms9810: that's beautifully made! you're certainly making progress! if you intend to go back and work more on this you could take a good long look at how the shading lies, the darker and lighter parties of the fur, but there's definitely no doubt you can draw .
and who is daiyu when she's at home - is she just another rat or does she too have a clear personality?

Ah, there are no 'just rats' each one has a unique personality, her specialty is escaping and she likes to play tug of war. Unlike most rats she doesn't like bananas. Yes, I usually try to be aware of shading but hair, especially light and dark like this one is hard for me to get right.

pretty nice job!
I wanna kiss your rat, she's cute. xD

very nice job, and I would love to feel her soft fur!

Yeah, and she knows it too.

Nice painting GMS. You're improving really well. With digital it's easy to do a rough outline on a dispensable layer and paint on another layer though that doesn't help you with traditional media. Of course with opaque paints you paint over the lines anyway.

I've started making one layer just for outlines, usually in red strokes, then delete it when all is finished.