How to paint a hare in loose watercolour

There are few greater thrills in life than an unexpected wildlife sighting.  

A bird of prey perched on a nearby post. The flash of blue as a kingfisher flies past. The stare of a deer through the trees. 

I’m sure you can recall some very special wildlife moments.

When we want to capture these moments on paper, it can help our painting to tell a story if we show the animal displaying some of its natural behaviour.

If the behaviour we want to show involves movement, a loose style of painting can work well to create that feeling, particularly when it comes to painting the background.

To demonstrate this, I’ve invited my friend, pro-artist Jennifer Rose, back into the studio. 

In this mini class, she’s going to guide us through painting a loose hare, sprinting through the rain, using a combination of wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry techniques:

I hope Jennifer’s mini class has inspired you to pick up your brushes and capture an exciting wildlife moment on paper too.

If you’ve enjoyed this loose hare class, make sure you check out Jennifer’s other mini classes. In them, she shows you how to paint other backgrounds including a water effect background, a frosty-look salt effect background, and roses with a loose foliage background. 

If you give this loose hare a go, Jennifer and I would really love to hear how you get on, so leave us a comment below to let us know. And if you enjoyed the video, do leave us a message. We love reading them!