This wildlife project takes you directly into the wild woodlands, where rabbit, bear, and fox await you under a night sky that is sparkling with stars.
My color palette for this project. See My Materials
1Draw a bear standing upright in the middle of the page, using simple lines. He will be the focal point around which the composition will be structured in the stages that follow.
It can sometimes help to divide the picture into foreground, middle ground, and background from the outset and then add the relevant motifs, in this case bear, rabbit, and fox. Try it out to see what works best for you.
2Sketch a rabbit at one side of the bear and a fox on the other. The different sizes of the animals create more tension in the picture.
3Now place three fir trees in the background, with their tops tapering upwards. Add a crescent-shaped moon in the upper left section of the picture.
4When you are happy with your composition, start to paint in the color. Moisten the paper in the area of the night sky and mix up a dark blue with round brush no. 5. Now dab this on at various points. Allow the paint to run and form patterns by dabbing more water in some areas. Wait and see what happens. Color in the ground in the lower section of the picture using a large flat brush and a suitable dark green color without too much water.
5When the earth and sky are dry you can begin to paint the fir trees in a dark green shade and the moon in a light gray.
Use deep, only slightly diluted paints for the sky and ground, as this is a night-time scene that requires dark shades to create the right effect. You should bear in mind that watercolors always fade slightly as they dry.
6Gradually paint in the animals’ coats: the rabbit in gray, the bear in dark brown and light brown for the fox as shown.
7When the sections painted in step 6 are dry, add color to the remaining parts of the fur. Leave the white areas on the animals unpainted.
8At this point you can focus on the details. Draw in the eyes and noses of the individual woodland animals with a black fineliner pen. Add little white points of light in the black eyes with a white Uni-Ball Signo pen and paint the bear’s claws with a few simple strokes. Use a dark paint or the black pen to add in the fox’s legs and the inner section of the ears and then draw in the tip of the nose with an inconspicuous gray tone using a thin brush.
9Finally paint in the starry sky with white paint or use the white Uni-Ball Signo pen. Just scatter large and small dots here and there at random all over the sky.
You can use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process. Take care not to hold it too close to your paper, otherwise it may move the color.