Without thinking about it, when drawing a brown tabby cat, most people will automatically start with

Without thinking about it, when drawing a brown tabby cat, most people will automatically start with the first example, but in actuality their fur is a LOT more like the second drawing.

Instead of brown with markings, the fur is actually various shades of gray and orange creating the FEELING of brown. It’s hard to paint! Of course this doesn’t mean you’re WRONG for drawing a cat like the first drawing, instead this is just something to realize if you’re struggling on accurately depicting a brown tabby. I have to think about this in pet portraits quite frequently. It makes them one of the more difficult colors I’m asked to paint!

Most of the individual strands of fur are actually multi-colored adding to the complexity of the fur color. I added in an example of the fur pushed back and what individual strands might look like. I jokingly call these porcupine quills when Pandora sheds them, because they visually resemble much smaller versions of a stripey quill!

Hope this is helpful! I really love what VARIETY brown tabbys have! Some lean much more orange, while others lean much more gray. It’s only in the complete absence of orange that they are thought of as gray tabby cats.