Painting 'Bluebell Foxtrot'

‘Bluebell Foxtrot’ 12″x19″ pastel on velour

Here is a step by step view of my painting ‘Bluebell Foxtrot’.  I’ve used some reference pictures of foxes for this guy and created the imaginary field of bluebells around him by looking at some pictures of bluebell fields.  I like to take existing photos and use them very loosely to create a painting of my own imagination.

My rough line drawing of the fox, but not really bothering to draw any of the surroundings.  Will try and piece that together as I go.

Here I’ve blocked in the colours of the trees in the background. See my nice Ikea desk?? Perfect for pastelling!

That area at the back is brought to life very simply by adding the circular light colours.  This gives an out of focus bokeh background as it’s known in photography.  I’ve also continued the blurry effect down through the bluebell field and it will be only the foreground that’s in focus.  This is lots of blending!

I start from the top of the fox and work my way both forward and down.  I’ll be using lots of blues in his bib at the front as the bluebells would reflect in the white part of his coat.  This is how I tie the image together and the fox must look like he’s in the same light as his surroundings.

With the fox in the foreground gets worked from left to right bringing the flowers and stems up in front of the fox to really make it seem like he’s  wading through the flowers.  This is the slow part…lots of detail in tiny flowers! But as always…worth the effort!