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This painting was completed between the evening of 26 January 2024 and the morning of 27 January 2024. I wanted to make something that wasn't too serious. I find that I don't obsess as much over animal subjects like cats or raccoons, compared to human portraits or still lifes.
I tried to play a little with different levels of definition. While the back of the body and the top of the head are more 'sketchy', with broad and blended brushstrokes, the eyes and snout are far more delicate. I wanted to really capture the fluffiness and silliness of the raccoon. The varying levels of texture also stop the painting from looking too chaotic or overwhelming. I also like how the colours turned out -- you can see how my orangey-brown underpainting still shines through a little in the finished product. If I could change anything, I would have fixed the colours on the bottom quarter of the painting -- the fur there skews too green for my liking.
Raccoons are my girlfriend's favourite animal. I made this painting for her as a goodbye and 'get well soon' present -- we were doing a long-distance relationship at that time, and she had been staying with me in London after a vocal surgery.