Watercolor Painting a Little Fox

Brushes:
Pointed round no. 4
Point round no. 2
Detailing no. 000
 
Colors:
Transparent Orange
Sap Green
Indigo
Cobalt Blue
Burnt Umber
Sepia
 
Color Mixing:
Cobalt Blue + Burnt Umber = Gray
Transparent Orange + Burnt Umber = Rust
Sap Green + Indigo = Dark Green
 
Note: A simple line drawing of the finished project is shown here. Lightly draw the guidelines for the shape of the fox. Any excess graphite marks can be removed with an eraser before you start painting if you don’t want them to be visible.

Tape down the watercolor paper to a piece of cardboard to prevent it from moving underneath
your wrist.
 
With the round no. 4 brush and medium-consistency Transparent Orange, paint the top half of the head, the front legs of the fox, and one of the ears.
 
While this color is still wet, use a round no. 2 brush and add just a touch of thick-consistency Sepia to the paws and let it bleed. Also, add just a touch on one ear. Don’t paint the other ear yet.

With some medium-consistency Transparent Orange and a round no. 4 brush, paint the tail leaving just a little bit of paper white toward the end.
 
Mix a watery-consistency gray using two parts Cobalt Blue and one part Burnt Umber, and with the round no. 2 brush add some wavy fur marks on the white part of the fox. So that’s the front of the fox, the bottom half of the head, and the tail.

With the same medium-consistency Transparent Orange and the round no. 4 brush, paint the hind legs and the tiny other ear toward the back.
 
With some medium-consistency Sepia and the detailing no. 000 brush, paint a little nose, an eye, and a mouth. Also add the Sepia to the bottom of the hind legs, using wet on wet.

Using a medium-consistency rust color made out of two parts Transparent Orange and one part Burnt Umber and the round no. 2 brush, add some wavy fur marks on the shoulders, front legs, and hind legs.
 
Add a bit of this rust color on the second ear at the back and on the tail, especially toward the base.
 
With the detailing no. 000 brush and medium-consistency Sepia, add a few whiskers on the white part of the snout.

With the round no. 4 brush and some of the medium-consistency gray you mixed earlier, paint a few slanted brush marks for the ground behind the fox. You can also add faraway trees.
 
Using some medium-consistency Burnt Umber and a round no. 2 brush, add some stems and branches for the little plants and shrubs.
 
With some medium-consistency dark green made out of equal parts Sap Green and Indigo and using the round no. 2 brush, add little dabs for the leaves and some grassy brushstrokes, starting from the base and flicking the brush upward to make some blades of grass. Add a few more dots and dashes near the fox as a final touch.

Credit:
Excerpted with permission from Watercolor in 10 Minutes a Day by Garima Srivastava. Page Street Publishing Co. 2024. Photo credit: Garima Srivastava