Fox Portrait in Oils: Working Through the Underpainting
- Marion Dutton
- Jul 18
- 1 min read
This week's video takes you through the underpainting stage of a fox portrait in oils, the part of the process that everything else in the painting depends on.
What we're painting
A red fox, looking back over its shoulder against a dark background. The likeness comes down to the eyes and the ears, so I wanted the drawing settled before any colour went on.
Why underpainting?
I don't underpaint every piece, but this one needed it. There's a lot of colour in a fox's coat, the rust, the white through the ruff and the darker tips at the ears. Working out the tone first in oils, meant I could get the drawing and the light against shadow right, then rework parts of the face without disturbing what was already there.
Once that stage is right, the colour work that follows is a lot more straightforward.
How the video works
I take you through the underpainting stage by stage, the drawing, the tonal blocking, and the bits around the face that took the most time. It's a demonstration rather than a full tutorial, so you can see how I worked through it.
What you'll come away with
A clearer sense of how an underpainting holds a painting together, and why getting the tone right early on makes everything that follows more straightforward.
If you'd like to learn the underpainting and four-value method properly, from the beginning, that's what I teach inside MazArt Academy.
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