Another Fox

I just can't seem to resist painting and drawing foxes.  This latest one is coming down the woodland path through a patch of wild flowers.  It's another one of my ACEOs to post on eBay, which I will do in a couple of days.

I'm getting more and more accustomed to the acrylic and gouache combination, and am also liking it more and more.  It seems to be just about the perfect combination for the way I like to paint.

I began by blocking in the background rather dark with Sap Green and Raw Umber acrylic, but was careful not to paint over the fox which remained the white of the paper.  The pattern was pretty loose with just a suggestion of the path in the middle and the foliage on either side.  Then I went over it with abstract-y leaf type shapes in a few shades of greens made by mixing my acrylic greens into the white gouache. 

Then it was on to the fox.  I painted him entirely with transparent acrylic, alternating layers of washes with tiny strokes with a liner to build up the fur texture and model the shapes.  It was only at the end that I switched to the gouache for the light highlights.

 

To finish the piece, I switched to gouache to detail the foliage and add the flowers.  I think having some of the weed strands coming over him is important - and made possible by the opaque acrylic gouache (Holbein Acryla Gouache).