On the prowl

A personal painting I decided to do to help with my skills with painting fur. The overlapping of paint is key to fur and showing the right direction the follicles grow.

I’ve found it hard to show the form and movement of short hair especially with animals in a perched or awkward position. You can have more freedom with long hair as you don’t see the skin and outline of the body underneath, you can simply give an impression of the shape. Short fur, not so much. You can see the rippled skin, the creases and folds of the body and the individual hairs need to flow with these.

Once I got the general movement and direction of the follicles worked out; it was then a time-consuming process to layer up the fur, adding the texture and detail to the leopard.

Patience prevailed! A great project to help develop my skills.