Winter Moon Badger

Well finally here in Devon it appears to have stopped raining. The trees have lost their leaves and winter is knocking on the door, I have nearly been in my little studio shed for a year now, and it truly is a haven for me. A place to shut out the world and do what I like most.

 

 

In this blog O thought I would share my steps in making a wintry badger watercolour, he sort of evolved from the paper , out of my splishy splashy watercolourness.

Firstly I sketched him out

Next I used some masking fluid and a paper clip to add some whiskers

Then I began work on the eyes, I used a limited palette, of blues, blacks and purples for the whole piece. I began with cerulean blue, carefully leaving a spot of white for the light in his eye.

 

Then I used a darker blue to go around the eye and add depth, this emphasises the light in the eye.

Now an even darker tone to paint in the pupil and add definition. I don't use black but a mixture of indigo and sepia

You can see I have also added detail in the corners of his eye and around the eye.

Now repeat with the other eye.

 

 

Now to the nose, and I paint in cerulean blue to begin again

leaving a white highlight where the light is hitting it.

 

Now go darker with a purple made from cobalt blue and cadmium red, note where the darker tones are, 

Now we have the light tones and the medium tones we can add the darker tones using the sepia and indigo mixture.

So he now has nostrils ! 

Now I add the colour to the white of the fur, using cerulean and the purple mixture .

This is wet in wet , so you need to work quickly.

Then I work on the black stripes , with cerulean blues and purples ( under) the black to create highlights

 

Then I use paynes grey for the black.

Now I use very loose painting to give the impression of the badger

Splashing and squirting water around and adding colours

Now I nearly left it there

But I felt it needed more

So I went on to create a woodland scene behind the badger, i added a moon with masking tape.

Then I used indigo to create the night sky, this is still all very loose, and free-form

Then I threw water and salt at the indigo and added trees in using more indigo and some water to take out some of the colour with some kitchen roll.

and I gave the moon some shading

Finally I added the finishing touches, more trees and branches some foreground splashes and grasses. I also added some white acrylic splashes for texture and movement ( and a bit of snow) 

And my Winter Moon Badger is done, have fun with the watercolour and see where it takes you .