We all need good hare days.....a post Easter challenge !

What an amazing bunch of people I have reading my FB posts and connecting with me via my website and here on my blog. I learnt this week that hares are indeed associated with Easter and I quote....

 Wendy Knipe

As mentioned above, the Easter bunny comes from the hare that was part of the pagan worship of the goddess Oestre and that's where the name Easter comes from!

Liz Clunie

The springtime festival celebrated before Christianity had a hare as representation (along with eggs), so you are totally traditional and totally appropriate to the day. As well as being super talented of course....fab pic 

 

But I also learnt that Hares are a very different species to rabbits, I love getting all this knowledge , it adds to the paintings I paint and it amazes me that people take time to comment, thankyou.

I hope you all had a good bank holiday weekend, we enjoyed sunny days in the garden

Lovely walks through the mid Devon countryside

and even a trip to the coast.

and I ate too much chocolate and enjoyed some family time.

So now onto the real point of this blog , a hare painting.....

Ok so I have painted many hares in my painting life, but I shan't apologise for that, as they bring me joy and each hare is a new challenge.

First get the drawing right, make sure things are in the right place , stand back , look at it and correct anything you think is wrong.

Then I take a paper clip, unwind it a bit and dip it in masking fluid , to mask off the whiskers.

Now I can concentrate on the eyes. Look and look again. Start with the lightest part, I like yellow ochre , then some orangy raw  sienna. Then add the darker tones, I always add a touch of cerulean blue to reflect the sky, and my black is made up of indigo and sepia.

Now onto the nose, yellow ochre and a mix of cadmium red and cobalt blue, for that dark purply colour. Oh a touch of cerulean blue too.

Now to let your brush dance. Be much more gestural. I under paint in yellow ochre but I add darker tones in browns and reds, blues and purples. All wet in wet to look like fur.

Now I turn him upside down to paint those magnificent ears. Yellow ochre with a touch of burnt umber , then while that is wet go in with a strong mix of cadmium red and cobalt blue to get right in his ear, to those dark crevasses. Let watercolour work it's magic, especially where the 2 colours meet, it will look like real fur then.

So when the ears are done, leave them, try not to fiddle too much, and slosh loads of water and paint on the rest of the hare. Add darks and browns and blues, and be as loose as you dare. Use bigger brushes and let the watercolour do what it needs to.

Now let it completely dry , and rub off the masking fluid, and hare he is is !