Why is it that often, the hardest part about painting is deciding what to paint, then running out of excuses or reasons to not get started? Why do I suddenly experience an irresistable urge to dust the furniture when I know a painting is waiting impatiently to be born?

Today I wanted to do something colourful, original and yet familiar. So, enter the Blue Hare!

This is an expressive painting verging on the abstract from the point of view of colour, as you would never see such intense colours in real nature. But the living Blue Hare does have a hint of blue, purple and gold in his coat, and if you allow yourself to break free from the photograph you can create something which is in some way lifelike, but full of your personality and spirit too.

I used Caribbean Blue, Quinacridone Gold, Indigo, Orange and Black for this painting, all from Old Holland. Of course you can use whatever colours you like, and Pthalo Blue is a good substitute for Caribbean Blue.

My tools were a round brush size 7 and 11 or thereabouts, a Staedtler watercolour pencil in black and a fineliner.

I stretched the paper first to avoid cockling, a process I explain here.