- Home ›
- Watercolour hares ›
- Hare painting
Hare painting
- stage by stage of "Nobody's fool"
The story of my "Nobody's fool" hare painting. Stage by stage.
The pencil drawing
First, getting him to sit still on my paper!
He's going to be pretty big: my sheet of watercolour paper is 33cm × 47cm.
The first watercolour layers down
The first watercolour layers are down. I always love the freshness of first washes.
That gorgeous yellow is one of my very favorite colours: if I had to choose only one yellow for my palette, it would be this. Quinacridone Gold (by Winsor & Newton). It's range, from a pure gold in concentrated form to beautiful pale transparent yellows when diluted, is wonderful.
I'm loving the granulation that is appearing and settling in the tiny dips in the paper around his eye from charging in some Burnt Umber and letting it do its thing.
The paper I am using is Fabriano 5 watercolour paper, Cold Pressed. It is a 50% cotton paper. This and the Fabriano 5 Hot Pressed are my go to watercolour papers.
The product links in this page are "affiliate links". If you click on them and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. I only recommend products that I use myself and have no doubt that you will love too. More information can be found in my disclosure policy.
Adding the golden moon
I cheated with drawing his moon! As it was going to cover over half of the painting and I wanted it placed perfectly first time with crisp edges, rather than drawing it freehand, I dug out an old serving plate from the back of our kitchen cupboards, turned it over and drew around it.
I added some further layers to the hare's face and body and then painted the moon. With shimmering Light gold and touches of Madder brown (which is a gorgeous soft rustic red).
The gold watercolour paint came out along with five other metallic pigments in a special Van Gogh range by Royal Talens in 2018. I had to wait until last the end of last year to get my hands on them! They are fantastic. They dance like no other pigment and fast! They are the Mambo of watercolours! I'll tell you more in another article.
I could have stopped here because I loved him as he was. But I knew I wanted a dark night sky to make that shimmering moon sing.
So with a brush that holds a lot of water and pigment - I used a Tintoretto that I had just bought as a treat and already adore - and a large pool of colour ready to go, around the moon I went! And when the shine on the paper had begun to die, with a small square synthetic brush I flicked some clean water onto the paper to add some texture.
My hare wasn't happy!
My hare was now feeling so very uncomfortable in his surroundings: his body so pale now in comparison to the dark night around him, he looked like a cardboard cut-out and easy prey. He shouted at me about it! So I blended him into the background using paler washes of the background colours and strengthened the tone in his upper body.
The last thing to do was to hide him in the grasses. Which were painted using a much thicker mix of watercolour and one of my best art supply buys - a great rigger brush which I picked up for next to nothing in the tiny decorating section of my local DIY store.
You don't need expensive brushes to paint with watercolour. If you are just starting out or on a budget, I would always advise first spending your money on the best pigments and paper that you can.
Some of my favorite brushes - the ones that I use everyday - cost Euros 7 for a pack of 5.
Add the magical dust that was in the air that night just appeared! ;)
The finished hare painting: Judy's "Nobody's fool"
He is Judy's "Nobody's Fool" because when she saw him my moon gazing hare didn't have a name and she said, "Look away and the picture will just be moon and grass. He sees you and will be gone. That hare is nobody's fool."
And so this hare painting got its name.
He lives with her now x
I remember writing this when I had finished him:
"My moon gazing hare and I have decided to call it quits tonight: he has taken his gloves off and I've taken the masking tape off! You won't believe how dirty our fight got today!!"
And it had. To make him become part of the night.
Purchase one of my hare paintings
My watercolour hares that are currently available for purchase may be found in my online shop. I update it when a new painting is finished.
Commission your own hare with attitude
Alternatively, if you would like to commission me to paint a hare with a stare! for you, just drop me a line and I'll get back to you asap.