I have always loved Australian wildlife, especially the furry critters. You can’t always see creatures like the Brushtail Possum (subject of the below piece) as they only come out to play at night and are very shy.

In my paintings I am trying to bring the character of the animal alive so that everyone can get to know these critters.

I would like to take you through the journey of bringing one of these unique animals alive.

The paint I use is Guache.

Guache is basically a watercolour with chalk added.

This means that it can be watered down and it behaves exactly like normal watercolours. Or it can be made thicker which allows you to paint in layers. This makes it ideal to create textures, like the fur of a possum

Stage 3

Now come the fun part. The ‘fur’. The fur is added in layers on different colours, with the brush strokes going on in a criss cross fashion. The final layers are added with a flick of the brush, following the direction of the fur. I have worked more on the front leg and almost finished the tail to give an idea of the stages invovled in building up the fur.

Wildlife art in is growing in popularity in Australia. The main criticism is that the works are merely illustrations and not true art. The main difference is that illustrations are made to show you what the animal looks like, whereas wildlife uses the same principles of other art, that is trying to capture a moment out of time for the viewer to see.

The first layers are usually two shades of brown. Although they are not visible in the end they serve to add warmth to the fur. The next colours used are black, white, and then the final colours. In this case the possum is greyish. So black and grey are alternated and flicks of white are added to give highlights. To give a brown possum you would use more brown and less grey to get the desired effect.

Stage 2

Now it is starting to come together. The possum was blocked in first to give an idea of the space needed.

The detail has been added to the tree. Some leaves have been brought in from off the page. This technique is used to give the viewer a sense of capturing a moment time.

At this stage the background has been put in with a large sweeping motion of the brush. The paint is applied very wet, which allows for the blended look to the skyscape. The paint is allowed to dry before starting the middle ground. In this case the tree that the subject is on is blocked in.

Stage 1

Here is a closeup of the leg/tail section, just to give you an idea of what the fur looks like completed.

I am only a student in both Wildlife art and Web design. If you have any comments on either please drop me an e-mail at troy_27@hotmail.com

Thank you for taking the time to look at my page.

Have a Great Day. Troy