Project 34: Gray Fox

The gray fox has white cheeks and throat, and a black-tipped tail. It has strong hooked claws that enable it to climb trees to escape predators.

Reference Photo

1 Establish the Main Lines and Begin the Coat

Lightly sketch the fox in pencil. Paint the main lines over this sketch using Payne’s Gray thinned with turpentine and a no. 3 round. For smaller details use a no. 1 round. Mix the darkest shadows for the gray part of the coat with Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue. Paint with a no. 2 filbert, using dabbing strokes that follow the hair pattern. For details, such as the hair tufts at the end of the tail and facial features, use a no. 3 round.

2 Continue the Coat

For the rust-colored parts, mix Titanium White, Burnt Sienna and Cadmium Orange. (You’ll use this color in Step 3.) Transfer some of this color to a clean spot on your palette and mix with some Burnt Umber and a little Ultramarine Blue for the dark shadows in the rusty areas. Use a no. 3 round. In places such as the dark shadow along the belly and under the ruff around the neck, you’ll paint the dark rusty red adjacent to and overlapping the edges of the dark shadowed areas you painted in the first step.

3 Paint the Middle Values

Paint the rusty red part of the fox’s coat with a no. 3 round. Use another no. 3 round and some of the blackish color from Step 1 to blend the edges of the rusty red areas where the two colors meet. For the blue-gray middle value of the coat, mix Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. Paint with a no. 3 round and follow the hair growth pattern.

Use separate no. 3 rounds for the rusty red middle value and the dark value, and blend the edges where the two colors meet. Use short brushstrokes to create the look of fur. If a brush gets too much of the other color on it, wipe it on a paper towel, then dip into the correct color again.

Mix the pinkish color for the inside of the ears with Cadmium Red Light, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White.

GRAY FOX

Oil on gesso-primed Masonite

8” × 10” (20cm × 25cm)

4 Add the Highlights and Details

Mix the color for the warm highlights along the tail, upper legs and chest with Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Orange and a bit of Burnt Sienna. Paint with a no. 3 round. Use a clean no. 3 round to blend the highlight color into the surrounding color. For the brightest highlights along the fox’s back, ears, lower legs and feet, muzzle and cheeks, mix Titanium White and a small amount of Cadmium Yellow Light and use a no. 3 round.

When dry, add some fur detail over the blue-gray middle-value fur with a no. 0 round and some of the dark color mixture from Step 1. Use another no. 0 round and some of the blue-gray color from Step 3 to tone down and blend the dark hairs with the surrounding color.

Paint the eyes with a no. 0 round and the dark shadow color from Step 1. Use a separate no. 0 round and a mixture of Titanium White and a bit of Ultramarine Blue to carefully paint the eye highlights.