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Well hello there and welcome to my scar tutorial. I've been making some scar tips lately, not it's all gained and reposted in one place. Tutorial shows how any scars should look in general, so it applies for any digital or traditional media.


Realistic scar placement(dog fighting):

Dogs who randomly get in a fight at park. Don't explode, it's not dog fighting.
Anyway, as you can see, here and as I can say from protos of dogs rescued from dogfights(look them up at your own risk), the most attacked parts are head, neck, chest and legs. Dogs who fight a lot have horribly damaged head. Also, it's not so random that dogs are having cropped ears. Ears are the easiest thing to catch and bite off.

Full eyescar guide, including common mistakes - /sites_co ... a_257f.png

General guide on drawing scars:
If character has fur, all edges should be modified to show that scars ripped the fur off. Take a look on his shoulder and arm - http://matto-sakujo.deviantart.com/art/ ... 7543&qo=43
Second(or maybe it should be the most important case), you must decide if you want to make more or less detailed drawing(more detailed scars look weird on overall less detailed drawing).
For less detailed images, only coloured outline will look good. For better effect you can modify the shape to make it more unregular, therefore - more realistic. Examples - http://flannmoriath.deviantart.com/art/ ... 2914&qo=70 http://flannmoriath.deviantart.com/art/ ... 914&qo=153 http://flannmoriath.deviantart.com/art/ ... 914&qo=158
For more detailed ones, they need shading on both scar and fur. That will create depth effect. http://y-esk.deviantart.com/art/Riki-98 ... 0riki&qo=1 Nothing furry here, but notice how the shading goes on the scar and skin - http://cristole.deviantart.com/art/Irritance-304016248 Or here - http://ruhje.deviantart.com/art/New-mor ... riki&qo=83

Quick image on how it looks in practice:



Another common mistakes:
1. Tail. Never make scars one tail. Fur can be torn, there can be come furless parts, but there never will be a scar on tail.

2. Ears. Like tail, it's rather impossible to have scar on ear. Ear will either have a cut or be torn off. Remember that missing a bigger part of ear is causing it to flop.
3. Scar shape. Not every scar has to look like cut. If it's not made by any cutting tool or claw, it will not be this long, single scar. There are many variations of shapes, epending of how scar was made. Was it bite, cut, torn? Think about scar's "origin" before making cuts everywhere.
4. Scar colour. Only fresh scars are red, where blood is still on. NEVER make scars red if they aren't freshly-made. Scars have similar colour to skin, often bright greyish-pink.



I hope it will help.

Woah, this was awfully helpful :3 I'll definatelly take a look at this whenever I think about adding scars to a character.