Painting a fox

The wild animal frequently seen in the village is the fox. This animal is a member of the dog family. It's head is the most difficult part to draw and paint. This problem arises when drawing and painting animals.

Figure 1 shows an outline of a profile and a coloured fox. Notice the large oval shaped ears which has a small bend on the outer rim. A pale wash is put on in brown and dark shaded colour over it when the first coating is dry.You will notice on Figure 2 a fox looking at you. I have used a thin pen to do the outline first and the coloured one is on the right.

I have first applied a pale wash of brown colour and dark brown over the dried wash to give the shading.

The long fur is drawn with quick loose strokes. The fox has a long pointed snout - large nose and flared cheeks of white hair.

The front view clearly shows the white fringe round the face.

In drawing and painting animals carry a small drawing pad, cheap paper to do a sketch with a sharp pencil HB 2 or 4 and once the pencil sketch is completed you may start colouring.

It is helpful to look at a photograph, from a film or visit the zoo to look and draw live animals. It helps you to do a perfect study of the animal.

A complete coloured sketch of the fox is shown on Figure 3.

A basic wash of burnt sienna is put over the body of the fox. The illustration shows a running fox which will help to analyse the movements of a running animal; the position of the legs, head and tail.After the first wash a dark brown wash of varying strength is applied with hair on the tail, head, neck, chest and rump with a thin nib. The details of hair, toes, claws, whiskers and eyes are painted.

The paper to be used Whatman, 180 gsm or Kent paper 50 gsm, with a slight grain and brushes sable hair No. 1, 2, 4 or 6.

You may do several drawings to be perfect in your colour mixtures.