Bat Eared Fox:

This "What's on the Easel Now" will be of a Bat Eared Fox which is found in Africa. Jan is doing it for her one person show at FORBES MAGAZINE in New York in March 2008 which is entitled: PAINTING SAFARI: Jan Martin McGuire's scenes from the African Wild.

Natural History Notes:
Bat Eared Foxes are found sporadically throughout East and Southern Africa. They are unmistakable with their masked faces and huge ears. The ears are for finding their primary prey - insects. Termites and Dung Beetles make up 80% of their diet. They are found in dry, open country in grasslands where they can find their food.

This is a good example of how Jan combines multiple experiences and reference sources to do a painting. Jan and James have seen Bat Eared Foxes many times on their trips and had the opportunity to photograph them some. Unfortunately they are fairly shy and quick moving so it has been difficult to get perfect photos of them. In this photo you see three reference photos along with the drawing to scale. The top reference photo shows a Bat Eared Fox Jan photographed in the wild in the Maasai Mara in Kenya. The second photo is a bat eared fox at a zoo here in the States. The third photo is some grasses Jan photographed in Africa. She loved this little fox with the light just striking his ear, and having "experienced" seeing them in the wild she felt comfortable depicting one. But rather than paint the "artificial" background with the zoo fox (which wouldn't have been very accurate anyway since Bat Eared Foxes tend to be found in grassy areas rather than rocky ones) she is putting him into the scene of the grass that she had photographed at a different time.

Jan has painted a purplish brown tone over the whole painting. She has transferred the outline of the fox to the painting surface and blocked out the fox with an artist masking fluid.

In this photo Jan has blocked off the top half of the painting with paper towels so she can work on the front sandy dirt area. She accomplishes the organic random look of the granules by dipping an old toothbrush into her paint and then raking her thumb across the bristles.

The paper towels have been removed, and Jan is now blocking in the rocks that are scattered throughout the painting. She is using her crunched up cellophane technique. This time she is doing it in reverse using white paint rather than brown since the background is already dark.

In this photo the rocks are done and the grasses almost completed. You can see the reference photos of the grasses Jan took in Africa and is using on the left.

The grasses are completed and the masking material has been removed from the fox.

The underlying off white paint is "drawn" on to create the basis for the hair coat.

The unifying brown wash has been applied to the fox.

Here is the finished painting - "TOUCH OF SUN - BAT EARED FOX" 11 x 14.