Painting A Modern Bunny in Oils and Acrylics

Yesterday I told you about the special little girl that was born to friends of mine. This little girl's mommy is a modern lady who loves doing things a little differently. She is also fascinated by an enchanted forest. This inspired me to paint a bunny for the baby room, but with a bit of a twist on the background. I show you step by step how to do the background and the textures on this painting in today's blog.

I start on a canvas that has already been prepped with gesso.

Paint the whole canvas with White Acrylic Paint.

Once the paint is dry, draw zebra stripes on the canvas, alternating from top and bottom. Keep them at unequal lengths. I used charcoal for the drawing.

Paint these stripes with Black Acrylic Paint and allow to dry.

This is what the background looks like  when it is done.

Now draw the bunny on the canvas.

I used Raw Sienna in Acrylic Paint to paint the whole rabbit. This serves as a base for my oil colours and masks the contrast of the white and black under the bunny slightly. Let the brush strokes follow the direction of the hair on the bunny's pelt.

I now finish the eye with Ivory Black, Titanium White and Naples Yellow.

I now switched to oil colours. I then use a palette knife to paint the whole bunny in Raw Umber. Pay attention to the direcion of the strokes. It should coincide with the direction the hair follows.

At this point I switch to a fan brush and use Burnt Umber to paint the darker shadow areas. The brush will pick up the wet paint at the bottom and slight mixing of colours will occur. This is great! It will look more natural, but avoid over-mixing the colours. Keep your brush strokes in line with the direction of the hair. Make sure to include longer and shorter brush strokes for different lengths of hair.

I switched to Naples Yellow and, still with the fan brush, added the highlights on the bunny.

All that was left to do, was to sign my name.

This cute little critter will be making its way to a little girl's room as soon as it is dry.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
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