How To Draw: Foxes

Since being kept awake by that fox earlier this week, I thought they would make a great subject for a How To Draw. Though they are mostly nocturnal creatures, they are regular visitors to most urban gardens, which means a lot of us have a chance of seeing one. It is also the mating season now for our foxes and as I experienced on Sunday night, they make a lot of noise. So now is a good time as any to get out there and draw one.

Stage One

To draw a fox, you need to draw a circle for the head, an oval for the body, another oval for the tail and four lines for the legs. If you want a fox that is sitting or any other position, just adjust these shapes to the way you want it (e.g. tilt the oval for the body upwards slightly for a sitting position). If you want the head to face side on from you, draw a pear-shape instead of a circle. The hind leg is made of two to three lines which form a zig-zag.

Stage Two

Now you need to build onto these basic shapes and add detail. Start by joining the body and tail together and draw around the legs. The hind one is a bit tricky, but shading it and the other legs in does help. Don't forget that the legs on the far side of the fox can be hidden if you want. Lightly shade in the fur, but leave any white patches alone. For the head, draw two triangles for ears at the top of the circle and draw a line between them from half way up (the points of the ears should be poking out) and another line connecting the bases of each ear. Next, at the bottom of the circle, shade in the nose and draw a small circle around it, which is divided in half with a line through the bottom half for the mouth. From where the line divides the small circle around the nose, on each side, draw a line going upwards and draw the eye at the end of each line. You also need Two lines going horizontal for the white cheeks of your fox.

Stage Three

Redraw over your fox in pen. To create the texture of fur, create a series of small lines which overlap each other. Shade lightly on some parts and heavier on others. Shade the legs black, but a little less so on the legs on the opposite side of the fox.

Stage Four

 Colour your fox in to finish it off. I first use a light layer of yellow, before applying orange and highlights of brown, red and grey. Leave the white parts white, though I have very lightly created texture for the fur.

Stage One

My next drawing is a close up of a fox's head, just for fun. I roughly plotted out the shapes that make up the head, ears and snout using circles, lines and two triangles (for the ears).

Stage Two

Starting from the left ear, I began to build up the shape with extra lines for the edge of the ear and by shading the inner ear. I then create a bridge of fur shading (a series of small lines for the texture of fur) and work on the other ear. Continuing from my bridge, I spread outwards with more fur shading, gradually heading south to the nose. Once I had created the nose, I then started to build the snout in the same way as before, but on a bigger scale this time. At the same time as building the snout, I work out where the eyes go and drew them in.

Stage Three

I then redrew the fox with my biro. This time, however, I start at the nose. From here, I could improve the shape of the snout by making it slightly smaller and thinner. Slowly, I worked my way up the snout by shading in lines of fur, drawing over the eyes and ears along the way. I left the whiskers for last.

Stage Four

Once I had finished and rubbed out the pencil, I finally could colour in my fox. Yellow first, then a light orange, a darker orange and highlights of brown and grey. I finished off my fox by adding more fur texture with my pen.

And there you have it. Aren't foxes beautiful? Why not have a go yourselves. If you put some food out in your garden, you may have a subject to draw in no time. I hope you have enjoyed today's How To Draw? if you have any suggestions for the next, please comment below.