Ok from the poll I made earlier I got 0 requests for my digital fantasy art (hahaha! that really surprised me). But most voted for me to post a tutorial on all my art so here it is! I put together two step-by-steps of a favorite headshot I did for Pack# 118188 (Libby). I also wrote a quick summary of those steps. Sorry if it's confusing - I'm not a teacher so I don't have much practice with things like this haha. But if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

(click on the image for a larger and detailed view)
https://i.postimg.cc/yYsRR8mz/SbSF.jpg

Digital Fantasy Steps
1. Draw out "framework"/outline of animal. I make sure to have hairlines/body parts shown.
2. using just a regular hard brush in photoshop I go over my sketch with smoothing setting at 100%. It really helps keep your lines clean.
Then i go over all my lines with a regular hard eraser brush (smoothing at 100%) and go over my lines to thin out certain spots, sharpen edges and clean up mistakes.
3. I color in the base (with any color really) and keep it all inside the out lines.
4. fill in the animals distinctive markings and fur colors. Sometimes if a pelt has blended fur instead of hard edge spots (like the one shown) you'll need to use a fur or just a soft regular brush
to blend the fur colors.
Shading
5. First i go through with cell shading to create a shaded fur type look. For this i created my own brush. I do my own style of cell shading which is why i created a brush instead of buying/downloading one.
6. Once my cell shading is in, i go through with soft shading to give the animal more definition to me it look less flat.
Highlights
7. I don't go too crazy on highlights unless I have a background that demands it (like a sunray beaming done on the animal). For this one i just did light soft highlights with a regular photoshop brush.
Final Details
8. For this i go through maybe the nose and ears to give them a more detailed look but not all time (for this one i didn't think it needed it). I don't go very crazy on details because then it crosses the line to a more realistic look, which is not the goal here.
9. As you can see i don't like pupils lol so for the eyes i choose the animal main eye color and create a lite sphere look inside the eye.
10. For me I color in the line art bc i like that look better then leaving it black but black lines are beautiful too.

Overview
For fantasy art its not really in the coloring/shading to make it have that awesome look, most of it is in the line art. Really focus on your lines while creating the fur lines and body parts. I really don't use special brushes either other than for shading or it the creature has a special feature on it that may require a certain brush effect.

Link for Digital Realism Tutorial:
https://wolfplaygame.com/forums.php?f=35&t=27724
Link for Traditional Art Tutorial:
Coming soon

Art Shop:
Coming Soon

Your art is great and this is very helpful ^^