How to create stylised vector fur in Illustrator CS4

This is the technique I used on No no I'm cute! and Pink monster. It's reaaaaally simple but people seem to like it.

1 - Background

Select a background colour, this will be darker than colour of the fur. I've drawn a blue rectangle with the rectangle tool (M).

2 - Fur shape

On a new layer (or the same layer it doesn't really matter) with the pen tool (P) draw a shape for your fur tufts. Depending on how large an area you're making furry you might want to make more than one fur shape, but I tend to just use one and free transform it for difficult areas. My fur shape looks like a sharp tooth.

3 - Adding a gradient

While your shape is selected open the gradient panel (Ctrl+F9) and create a gradient similar to the one I have created below. It is important that the gradient have a 0% transparency at one end, and that this be positioned at the widest point on the fur shape. The colour of the fur should be lighter than the background colour.

4 - Copy and paste

While your shape is selected copy it (Ctrl+C) and paste as many as you want to fill the background. Overlap them to create texture. In the example below I haven't done anything fancy, just copy and pasted.

There you have the basics of vector fur! There are a lot of things you can do to make this technique look better, for example a gradient on the background, shadows, different fur shapes and sizes, but this should be enough to get you started ;D