What Does The Fox Say

First attempt at painting a fox.

I had absolutely no idea how I was gonna do this.  I was worried about color, shape, fur.... I really didn't know what to do.  So what I did was this:

I dropped on some basic color.  Red/Orange for the face, leaving a little white on the chin and chest, and then some green in the background.

I came back and just started putting in fur in one place then another, then another.  Just little bits here and there.  Patches no more than a quarter to a full in width and only the length of a few hairs.  I perhaps did more under the chin than any other place.  Then when it was totally dry, when back over it with another coat of base color.  It kind of smoothed it out enough that it doesn't look too staccato, but not so much that it doesn't look like fur.  For a first attempt that I made up on the fly, I think it turned out pretty good.

The eyes just turned out to be black spots.  Thats not what I was going for,  I may have to go back and lift out  a little black to give a little more color and drop in a highlight.  

Hope you enjoy it.

Ellie

Here is my final painting of Ellie.  I tried something new with this painting.  I'm always having trouble with fine lines around eyes.  Seems like I either don't get the color I want on my brush or I don't get the intensity right, or more usually, I don't get the thickness of the lines right.  Well, in this painting I tried using colored pencil to do the detail work.  You know what?  It works.  I've watches lots and lots of videos of people doing it, and kind of thought to myself, I should try it.  But like using masking or white paint for highlights, I have so far resisted.

Well, I thought with some of the hairs on Ellies snout and geting the lines of her eyes right, that I would give it a shot.  As it turns out, it works great.  Why not use watercolor pencils you ask?  Well the answer is simple.  Watercolor pencil color runs a bit when it gets wet.  Regular colored pencils don't.  You can see in some of her whiskers that straight lines are easy.   If I had tried to put on the white whiskers with white gouache, I would have had a horrible time with it. How runny do I make it?  Do I even try to thin it at all?  How long a stroke can I make with it.  With the pencils, one stroke and done.  Brilliant.  I am definitely gonna use colored pencils in the future.

Well, I hope you all enjoy this painting.  I really liked doing this one and the sketches of her previously.