This watercolor tutorial by professional artist Paul Clark demonstrates how to paint a simple fox in watercolour using a limited palette of three colors. The tutorial includes a quick and easy background, and the artist uses a reference photo from Pinterest. The tutorial also features Mont Marte Joe as a guest artist. The goal is to add a watercolor fox to woodland paintings, blending red hues and capturing the mischief in its eyes. The tutorial is suitable for intermediate watercolorists and includes a step-by-step guide on materials, sketching, and painting steps. The tutorial includes a reference image and color tips, and is suitable for intermediate watercolorists. The tutorial includes a reference image and color tips, making it easy to create a beautiful watercolor fox. The tutorial is suitable for intermediate watercolorists and offers a relaxing and easy-to-follow technique for creating a beautiful and expressive watercolor fox.
📹 How to paint a fox in watercolour – step by step
A step by step guide on how to paint a fox in watercolour – step by step by professional artist Paul Clark Website: …
📹 Watercolor Fox: Achieving a beautiful Painting with Simple Steps
I paint a fairly simple fox in watercolour using a limited palette of only three colours. It has a quick and easy background as well.
I thought this might help someone who wants to follow along with his tutorials. Paul is SO very generous by posting his sketches on his website for us. I recently discovered I can print onto watercolor paper. The printer is a factor (you for sure need a back side paper feed), but I have a super cheap one I got at Walmart (Canon TS 3322) and not only does it run a single sheet of 140# watercolor paper just fine, the ink is waterproof. It also has a scanner so you can use your own sketches as well. I did several yesterday of different sizes (it’s literally one click to change the size so fast and easy), printed monochrome at draft quality and it gave me soft grey outline just perfect. This is a major game changer for those of us practicing. The only bad thing is that I can’t print larger than 8.5×11 size.. but that’s no problem for me.
Thank you so much for this. I am here in 2023, frustrated and in tears over trying to use watercolors. This has been going on for years. I am a pen & ink gal, along with colored pencils. I just do not have a good relationship with paints. I love this, but am going to look at your other articles also to find a good starting point & to try again. Thank you!
Paul, I watch many different artists to get ideas and techniques. I find I come back to yours time and time again. Your presentation is fun, light and informative. Serious in the subject but entertaining in its presentation. Your work is brilliant. I look forward each week to what you are going to do next.
I know I have commented before Paul but every time I start perusal you paint I think oh gosh I am not sure it’s going to look right and then by the time you have finished it’s completely transformed, how do you do it I wish I could get the same result. I have also taken your advice and have been drawing plenty of sketches etc and I think they have improved so thank you once again for being such an talented artist.
I’m typically drawn to your style of watercolor (semi loose but structured?), but I also greatly appreciate illustration both realistic and animation style, classic botanical studies… and I recently discovered an artist who does “watercolor pouring” with masking/stencils/lifting that produces the most amazing work. It’s wonderful that everyone can do their own techniques.
I started painting about 3 years ago. I have a few artists that I’ve been following on YouTube for some now now, but I’ve only recently came across your website. You’ve quickly become one of my favorites! I love how you explain everything so clearly and your articles are always so fun. I’ve learned so much in just a few short weeks. Can’t wait to see more!
Another lovely exercise with a wintery feel….atmospheric too…not sure my chickens would approve ! Really very well explained and pleased it is in a slightly ‘loose’ style. Would love another cityscape exercise to try – maybe Chinatown or similar . I keep trying night time city views and they never come out looking convincing and the dark shades get muddy. Thank you for another great tutorial.
Beautiful. So many of the best watercolour tutorials come from Britain, but frustratingly no one can understand or address the issues living in a climate with 38% humidity, as you blithely continue to paint for 10+ minutes and your paper is still wet. Mine dries within 5 minutes and it’s really tricky to achieve optimum moisture. Spritzing has variable results. One of the reasons w/c is such a challenge, wet in wet. Nevertheless, a lovely lesson.
I enjoy your tutorials immensely! Thank you for making them available to everybody! I have tried the fox yesterday, I totally loved the approach to use colours more losely, I feel that I need to “let go” a bit more when I paint to make it all more spontaneous. The picture in my profile is the end result! I love it! Thanks again 🖌🖌🖌
Hi Paul. You and I spent many happy hours together this weekend practising the techniques in this article. I am more than pleased with my results. I only began to paint last September. I would like to thank you sincerely for all the wonderful easy-to-follow articles you have made and for generously making them so freely available. It’s a really great thing you have done.
Another winner!!! Wonderful teaching, Paul! I sent this on to a friend who, after 30 year of painting, struggles with being too exact and she wants to loosen up. She is attempting painting an elephant in a loose manner and has chosen the same color palette that you used with this fox. What a find for her! You have given great tips in loosening up. And I love love love your encouragement to do it your way – no way that is wrong or right! ❤️
Hi Paul – I just discovered your articles and they are exactly what I was looking for! Fun, colorful, a bit abstract and with humor! I am a professional contemporary metalsmith of 44 years and beginning engraver, just returning to sketching and watercolors after not doing much in2D for most of that time. Love Love LOVE your open looseness in applying color! I look forward to perusal ALL your articles.
I’m still in awe of your confidence in splashes of colors that always turn out perfectly. The word loose is no where in my DNA in watercolor, or acrylic😪 so THANKYOU for the “it’s just different” encouragement. I love how as soon as you put the last eye in it just came to life for me. I love details! Love painting details! He’s beautiful and you are a wonderful teacher with a forgiving voice. You make me feel like i can do this, and it will be ok! 🙂 Blessed day to you sir🙂
I look forward to Wednesdays for your amazing (and funny) tutorials. You made the fox painting look easy, like you’re randomly dropping in color onto your sketch Your result is a gorgeous animal with vibrant colors spilling across the page. It’ll take several thousand tries for me to get that (if ever), but I’m enjoying the journey. Thanks for sharing your mastery with us, and Happy New Year!
Paul, this is lovely! The white highlights on the fox give it such a glowing life. Can someone please explain to me why animals’ eye are so difficult!?! I had a article idea that you might consider. You are so right that different teachers all approach watercolor differently. I was wondering if you could paint the exact same picture using different methods so that your YouTube students could see the different possibilities and results. That may be difficult because every artist has the methods that they prefer and know work for them. You could also do a collaboration with another watercolorist and you both paint the same picture so that we could see different approaches and techniques. Sorry this comment is long, but where I live in rural America there are absolutely no watercolor classes that I can take in person. YouTube has become my virtual school, and you are one of my favorite teachers.
Hi Paul! I truly enjoy perusal your articles and find the comforting tone you use to simplify a painting very reassuring, especially since I am a beginner and self taught at that! One of the issues I face, is to be able to break down a painting I want to attempt into the stages I should be following to build it up. Are there any guidelines for this? And one request I have is – could you please show an inset of the finished painting through your tutorial? It helps a great deal to understand why you use that stroke or colour in a particular place…
Thank you Paul, my foxy is a little fat but otherwise happy, by the way I have not picked up a paint brush since my teens, with lockdown and to keep me occupied I dug all my kit out again and after 7 months can see the results are much better, well the family think so! I’m now in my 70’s so it proves practice and practice works. Love your articles
I love your Fox!!youre paintings are such a lovely mixture between beeing to realistic and Kind of abstract..Because i started with pencils bevor using Aquarell colours it is Really difficult for me Not to get lost in details.. And so funny..i just painted a Fox myself bevor perusal your article.. Stay healthy and happy!!!!looking forward to the next lesson..
Hey Paul, since you asked…. I have a request for a painting that I want to paint for my mother…. a field of cosmos flowers, with a split rail wooden fence and a barn and maybe a wagon wheel in the background. LOL… too specific? My Mom just wanted the field of cosmos flowers, but that is kind of boring. So, I added a few things so I could learn how I would approach a painting with multiple aspects (i.e. field of flowers, fence, barn, and wagon wheel). For example, what would I paint first, would I need to use masking fluid, etc.?? Or, if this is too much, maybe you could talk about how I would plan and prepare for a painting like this. I’m not the best at drawing, so I would want to trace something onto the watercolor paper. Sorry, I’m taking advantage of you :)… I’m a big fan of yours — I bought your book and brushes :)… I haven’t read the book yet, probably get to that once I retire in about 1-year :).
I’ve just found your website. Your memorizing to watch, your voice is so calm and I love your humour. You make it all look so easy. I see you use a knife to scrape the paper to reveal a fur like texture… do you have any tips ? Does it actually scrape the paper off or just the paint layer? I’m definitely going to give this a try. 🙏🏼 thank you
Hello there! The fox is ready to be going alive, to jumping out of your beautiful aquarel picture! Marvelous animal aquarel, thank you very much! And the fox is very good in balance, with the beautiful orange and blue colours aquarelpaint. Lots of aquarel paintings greetings from Riny into the Netherlands. And not to forget, I’m wishing you and your family, a very happy, healthy time for the New Year 2021! 🎄🍾🥂🎇
Thank you Paul for your wonderful watercolor painting. I have only been painting for a year and have already learned a lot from yourself. It is a great pleasure for me to watch you paint. You inspired me to paint my havanese dog. I think it will be difficult. She has so much fur.😅 Paul, Happy New Years to you and your family and doc Lala.🥂🍾🍸🎆
Hello Paul, thank you for having given your opinion about background or no background, it is (was) one of the questions I was asking myself, because I had the feeling to “ruin” my subject with a background, and also, if you have the opportunity to advise us what color to use…even if it depends part of each feeling, thank you in advance.
Lovely article! Thank you for sharing! I enjoyed a coffee while you had your bitter beer 🙂 I am about to embark on recreating a special picture of my dog using this technique you just taught. How do you decide what areas will be loose and what areas will be tight? I suppose I am afraid of loosing the detail that makes my dog special…
Beautiful! I likee. A lot. I have a painting that someone wants to buy…I don’t want to sell. It just happens to be a red fox too. Maybe another painting is the answer. Thanks for showing that there is more than one way. I’m going to have a go. He may get his fox after all while I keep my cunning old fellow.
Thank you for that initial message. I am a beginner. I’ve been in lessons for about a year and 1/2 with one primary teacher & a couple of others. Recently I started perusal YT articles and it is facinating they different approaches to doing the same thing. Luckily, my teacher doesn’t get offended by my looking at other people’s lessons. One question – why didn’t you add whiskers on the other side of the face? I can’t tell from the photo if they are there or not.
Wow another great tutorial how do you do it? What do the fox say ….. Paul Clark paint ME! So going to give this a go will watch a few more times on how you did the muzzle area (on a fox is this called the nose?) For me this was the wow it’s a fox moment for me when the little guy (ok could be a girl I suppose) became more 3D so cool. Haven’t been brave enough yet with the knife on paper but am thinking I will give this a go this time. Thanks for the sky painting tip I’m now addicted to softening the sky a bit with a wet tissue I just love how my sky’s are turning out um I do quite a few sunset over water (West Coast girl and I love our perusal our fishing boats going out over the bar with the sun setting so pretty this summer I’ve been down at the Cobden Head taking photos and trying to paint this) um so could you do a few water paintings on water? Water is the hard part I’m wanting it so the water looks like it’s moving the waves coming up the river it’s hard to explain um so something with water would be great, having said this I’m enjoying all your tutorials. Keep safe over there Paul Kia Kaha as we say here in NZ.
Good heck I dang near pulled a rib laughing so hard……. What you say is “”Get Out!” 🤣🤣🤣 Excellent painting as always Paul! And your tutorials are second to none. You’ve got a talent for art and a true gift for teaching it. After perusal your articles even my wife say’s some of my paintings are “passable”. Course I take off her glasses and throw a little table salt in her eyes🤣(kidding) Thanks for passing along the knowledge and making it fun!
Great pic Paul! Am wondering, have you thought of doing a article explaining the colours and when/why to use them? ie.. Prussian blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine etc etc.. what each blue is good for? Same with reds etc.. I remember perusal Bob Ross years ago, and he’d name his unpronounceable paint colours, and I’ve been confused ever since. Lol
A suggestion: Would you consider to upload the templates to your website in .jpeg format rather than .pdf? By this way the image would fit the screen 100% (especially when viewing it via mobile) and zooming in/out would be easier. I’m no computer guy but that’s just a thought. Sir I’ve become addicted to your website so quickly and been looking forward for new articles. Your style is so unique in tutoring that you simplify the process even to a junior’s level. And believe me I follow so many art websites on Youtube. Best regards. Fatih from Turkey
Your tutorials are always so professionally and beautifully done. I appreciate your openness about the things that challenge you; it’s helpful to know that someone as talented as you struggles at times as well. I encourage you to do more backgrounds as you demonstrated here. I never feel my paintings are complete without them, and find them the most challenging. Thank you for sharing this demo–it’s beautiful.
That background is absolutely stunning, Louise! Wow. I’ve come to love Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna because of you. 😉 This fox painting will be the first of yours I’m going to try and do myself! After perusal many hours of your tutorial articles over the past two years, I believe this painting (with its limited palette, using several techniques, a looser design, and a simplified background) is the perfect way to start! And I have a fondness for red foxes, as my maiden name is Vos – which means “red fox” in Dutch. 😊 Thank you so much for sharing, for your husband taking the time to edit, your positivity, transparency, and humor, and for boosting my creativity! Blessings ❤
Louise, really nice including the distant trees. One of your comments, when you were adding background trees, kind of made me laugh at myself hen you said that “you really did not want to mess the painting up at this stage.” How often I think that when adding a touch of detail to an otherwise completed painting. Again, a really nice watercolor! Robt
Dear Louise, I think it’s about a year now that I joined you as a patron on Patreon. It was, for my personal water colour adventure, the best decision ever. All my relatives and friends can see the tremendous progress I have made THANKS TO YOU. I love the quiet, relaxed way of explanation and working because after all, don’t we do this for our pleasure? With tinnitus in my head, painting like this is a great relief and I can forget about it (and the world around me ☺️). So many animals and flowers I already painted with you and I’m still looking forward for many more to come. Thanks Louise! And never doubt yourself. You have got style! This fox 🦊! 😍
I look forward to doing this from your Patreon tutorial. We have these little foxes living in our wooded neighborhood here in Tennessee, U.S.A. I’ve noticed the palette you used in this tutorial is one I’ve seen in many of your tutorials. Do you know who made it? I’d love to find one like it. Thank you, Louise!