Harold The Hare and the butterfly

Although I have mostly painted Watercolour landscapes I have tried a few birds but never really attempted to paint any animals or any other type of wildlife sometimes I will add a dog to a painting but that's only a squiggle with the brush never any animal on its own.

A few years ago I painted a Hare on my computer using adobe Photoshop

This is the computer generated print of Harold the Hare

I mounted and framed him and put him on the bedroom wall, but laying in bed today looking at him I thought I wonder if I could paint him with watercolour, I wouldn't mind having a go with that I couldn't wait to get up and get started

First i needed to draw him in pencil roughly shading in the darker areas i also added the butterfly that is in the picture

 Pencil Drawing

Knowing that the colours of the hare are mostly dark i haven't got to do any masking fluid to save any areas while washing in the background just be careful to lift out some white spots in the eyes and on the face

 then i washed in the background

I sprayed the whole sheet of paper with water, let it soak for a minute or two  then dabbed off any of the surplus water with some tissue,

then using cadmium yellow 1st then some rose madder red, and a light mix of alizarin crimson mixed with ultramarine blue don't over mix them together when applying them to the paper

also dabbing out some of the paint that was over the hare then I dried it with a hairdryer and the resulting image is above

When dry it was time to tackle Harold i painted him and the butterfly taking my time to get it as i though it looked best and to be quite honest he started to come to life and i started to like him more already than the print

 finished painting of the hare and the butterfly

paintings never look right until they have a mount around them or double mounts in this case I love ivory mounts sometimes with a little filet of colour and in this case i have to use the one that was there with the little bit of Royal blue showing

OK time to put it all back into the frame and hang it back on the bedroom wall

 Now I know he's back on the wall and he's a real Original Watercolour Not A Photograph

if you want me to paint him again you will have to buy this one.  The Print and the original are now for sale Framed and Double Mounted the size of the painting without the frame and mounts is A4 approx 11.75" x 8.25" inches

THANKS FOR LOOKING

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