I wouldn't say my edit is better. Your approach of big tuffs and clusters is probably far more practical and easier to achieve better looking fur. My edit does add a lot of noise and extraneous work since I was thinking in the vein of how to depict shorter fur :\
Good insights all around.
It's nice of you to say that, I felt really bad posting after you and your super-realistic edit
thank you all!! i finished the image and added the remaining fur. please tell me how i did. also i really loved your edits, both of them!!
There's a thing that bothers me in your last version: aside from the two external tuffs of fur, your edit is exactly the same as mine
it's not that I don't want my edit to be used or anything, but as it is said, "Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day ;
set a man on fire teach a man how to build a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life". If you want to be able to draw fur by yourself and improve,
do your own edit, basing yourself on someone else's !
(Not to mention my edit was done in 5 minutes to demonstrate a point, so it's far from being finished !)