Watercolor Painting a Red Fox (Painting How-to)

Draw the Outline
 
Starting on a sheet of cold-press watercolor paper, draw the outline of the fox’s body and its fur with a sharp HB pencil using the corresponding template. Do not worry about the fine bushy details of the tail, as these will be painted later on.

Paint the Base Layer of the Body
 
To prepare the base layer of color that will fill the head and fur on the fox’s body, use a size 4 brush to mix together a midtone solution of burnt sienna with a swirl of cadmium orange hue. We want this color to have a rusty copper hue. Load the paint onto the bristles of the brush and glaze the upper head, outer ears, legs, paws, back and tail with a wash of this warm rusty mixture. Allow the paint to fully dry.
 
Switch to a size 3/0 brush. Mix a lightly saturated solution of yellow ochre and fill in the iris of both eyes. Allow the paint to fully dry. Clean the bristles of the brush and swirl it into lamp black until the brush is loaded with color. Carefully use the tip to outline the eyes and fill in the pupils with dark inky black.

Paint the Lower Fur Layer
 
Next, we will paint the fur that runs along the underside of the face, chest and body of the fox. Clean your size 4 brush and mix Chinese white with a tiny dab of Vandyke brown to create a warm cream color. Glaze this color onto the inner ear and the fur on the cheeks, running down onto the front of the chest, the underside of the belly and finally the patch of fur that sits on the bend of the fox’s right leg.
 
While the paint is still damp, mix a lightly saturated sepia using a size 1 brush. Drop this color onto the left-hand side of the fur on the chest and a small dab onto the fur on the fox’s right cheek. Let the paint sit and fully dry.

Paint the Face and Upper Chest Fur
 
Next, we will begin painting the details on the face. Switch to a size 3/0 brush and mix a lightly saturated solution of burnt sienna with a dab of Vandyke brown. Glaze the sections of the face around the eyes and at the top of the forehead, blending into the bottom of the ears. Use short, quick brushstrokes to fill in the areas of the middle of the head, following the fur growth pattern of curving to the left on the lefthand side and curving to the right on the right-hand side.
 
The fur density will be sparser in the middle of the head, so farther spaced brushstrokes are needed versus the top of the forehead and the sections of the cheeks that are on either side of the nose where the fur is more tightly packed together. Add a layer of the dark copper paint to the fur on the right-hand side of the fox’s head below the ear.
 
Clean the brush and load the bristles with a midtone saturation of lamp black to create a gray hue. Fill in the entire nose with this color, and as the paint is drying, add more lamp black to the gray solution to deepen the color to true black. Fill in the front of the nose with this black mix, leaving a strip of gray at the top as a highlight.

Paint the Fine Facial Features:
 
With the same midtone mixture of lamp black we used to darken the front of the nose, use the tip of the size 3/0 brush to trace down either side of the bridge of the nose, extending the black fur outward onto the edge of the mouth on the right hand side in a small dark patch. Trace along the outlines of the outer ears and follow the contours of the outlines of the orange fur on the face to create greater definition.

Add Depth to the Upper-Body Fur:
 
To prepare the color that will be used for the shadows on the fox’s upper-body fur, mix a lightly saturated solution of burnt sienna with a dab of Vandyke brown using a size 4 brush. This color will be a warm, deep rust color. Glaze a wash of this hue over the entire curve of the spine, extending into the entire lower back and orange fur on the leg. Add a layer of this color to the legs from the very top of the arm, extending downward to the top of the paws.

Add the Darkest Layers of Fur:
 
For the darkest layers of fur, use a size 1 brush to mix a midtone solution of sepia. Load the color onto the brush and fill in the front and back paws, extending the paint softly upward along the front legs along the right-hand side. Clean and dry the bristles of the brush and gently stroke the edges of the brown layer we just painted on the front leg upward to soften the edges and allow the dark color to blend seamlessly into the rusty orange fur below it.

Create a Definition of the Fur and Face:
 
Using a size 3/0 brush, mix a midtone solution of sepia with a tiny dab of lamp black to create a deep, rich brown color. Load the tip of the brush with this mixture, and starting at the center of the back, begin to paint in short, quick brushstrokes traveling downward along the contours of the back and the hind leg, filling the patch of rusty orange fur on the back leg with a sparse patch of wiry, dark brown brushstrokes. Use the same brush and dark brown color to outline the contours of the front and back legs, using short, quick brushstrokes to re-create a furry texture. With this dark brown mixture, use the tip of the brush to carefully trace in the whiskers on either side of the cheek.

Paint the Tail:
 
Mix a heavily pigmented solution of sepia with a swirl of lamp black to create a dark, rich brown color. Take a dry size 2/0 Isabey brush and swirl the bristles on a piece of dry paper towel. This will separate the bristles outward. Dip the tip of the dry brush into the dark brown solution and very lightly brush the tips of the bristles along the shape of the tail. As the solution is going to be quite dry, you will need to dip and brush repeatedly to build up texture and color on the paper, but this will give a very dry and coarse “bushy” effect. Build up layers of dry color toward the base of the tail where it meets the body. The red fox is now complete!

Excerpted with permission from Watercolor in the Woods by Jane Carkill.