Whether you’re a fan of the cute and cuddly or the wild and woolly, animals make fabulous subjects for painting. And if you’re wanting to learn how to paint fur to create your favorite fluffy, four-legged creature, this fox acrylic painting tutorial is a great place to start. Since a fox has a mix of long silky fur on its body and shorter hair on its nose and around the eyes, this project is a good way to practice techniques for painting different types of fur textures. The process described in the video tutorial below also works for creating other animal portraits including painting dogs, cats, bunnies, red pandas and, well, any other animal you can think of that has fur.
To learn how to paint a bunny, watch this acrylic painting tutorial. And to see how to paint a bird on canvas, try this tutorial.
Scroll to watch the complete video tutorial along with helpful tips for learning how to paint animal fur using acrylic paint.
gather these supplies for your painting
- acrylic paint (Liquitex, Golden or other quality brand) I used Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylic in these shades: Titanium White, Raw Umber, Raw Sienna, Payne’s Gray, Naples Yellow, and Burnt Umber for the fox
- Golden Glazing Liquid (either Satin Glazing Liquid or Gloss Glazing Liquid)
- brushes suitable for acrylic paint in different sizes (flat shaders, small liner brushes, a filbert brush, flat wash, round, etc.)
- pre-primed canvas or primed wood panel
- canvas paper pad or old canvas for practicing fur painting techniques (optional, but helpful)
- water container and old towel/rags
step 1: helpful tips before you start painting
choose a great reference photo
Choose a good quality, high resolution image as your main reference photo. Look for a photo with good lighting and sharp detail. The better the photo and detail, the easier it will be to create your animal painting.
I’m using this fox photo by Krasula from Shutterstock as a reference for painting the eyes in my fox painting.
And for the head, nose and ears, I’m using this second reference photo from Shutterstock taken by Canadian wildlife photographer, Jim Cumming.
And finally, I found a third fox photo by Volodymyr Burdiak on Shutterstock, that I’ll be using as a color reference.
It’s helpful to have a variety of images to study as you paint fur and other details.
It is also helpful to have your main reference photo printed so that it is the same size & scale as the animal you will be painting. So, for instance, if you are working on a 9×12 size canvas, it’s nice to have your reference photo printed out at the same 9×12 size so that what you are seeing in the photo matches the scale of what you are trying to reproduce and paint on the canvas. It’s easier to get proportions accurate this way and makes less mental work for you to do as you are painting.
choose a smooth canvas for painting fur
A smooth surface is better for painting fur. It’s easier for a brush to glide over a smooth canvas and make fluid strokes. Trying to move a brush tip over a surface with a pronounced texture and unevenly woven fibers often gives you choppy broken lines instead of flowing strands of hair.
select a few good brushes
You can create a great painting without spending a fortune on brushes. If you don’t already have brushes that work well with acrylic, then buy a few mid-level quality ones to use for this project–halfway between student grade and the pricier brands. A wash brush, a filbert, a few flat shaders and a small detail brush will work well.
You can also create your own “specialty” brush by using scissors to trim sections out of an old brush–like giving it a “bad haircut”. This can create some interesting fur texture.
try glazing liquid for silky fur
The good thing about acrylic paint is also the bad thing: it dries fast. Sometimes too fast. Mixing glazing liquid into your acrylic paint slows the drying process so that you have plenty of time to blend brush strokes and create silky fur.
step 2: video tutorial–how to paint fur
Watch the video to see the start-to-finish process of how to paint a furry fox. In the last 8 minutes of the video, you’ll find a demo for how to paint animal eyes.
other helpful tips
fur painting practice rounds
Before working on your actual painting, do some practice exercises on inexpensive canvas paper or old canvases to develop your technique and give yourself confidence.
Try using different brushes and write notes next to your brush strokes for future reference. Hold the brushes in different positions. Experiment and have fun!
paint background first before painting fur
This may seem like an obvious piece of advice. If you’ve ever painted a furry animal on blank canvas and then tried to go back after the fact to paint a background behind it, you know that it is tedious at best, and maddening at worst.
Before painting my fox portrait, I used glazing liquid and acrylics to work on this winter blue background–
take a break
Periodically, step away from the canvas and look at your work in progress from several feet away.
if something looks a little off—
If you feel as though something is not quite right about your painting, but you are not sure what it is—try looking at it from a different perspective. To check accuracy, turn the painting as well as your reference photo upside down. Just viewing it flipped will often reveal exactly what is off. You can also view your painting in reverse by standing with your back to the canvas and viewing it with a handheld mirror. Or take a photo of your work with your phone.
give your brushes a spa treatment
After you finish your painting, treat your brushes to a good cleaning so they’ll be in top form the next time you use them. One great option is da Vinci Brush Cleaning Soap –this is an all natural, hand-made, chemical free bar. It’s gentle and vegetable based, so it cleans brushes without leaving them stripped. It can even be used to clean make-up brushes!
This Artist Soap is another great choice, and it works amazingly well for acrylic paint as well as oil paint. In addition to paint, it can be used to remove ink, dye, grime, and even grass stains.
It comes in a bar with a refreshing peppermint scent.
Happy painting!
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