Fox in the Woods

I'm enjoying cross hatching. I think it's teaching me more about lights and darks and how to see them as shapes & I hope it will feed into me getting better at more natural shading.

Here's a piece I created yesterday. Instead of drawing on a pre prepared background I did things the other way.

First I sketched the outline in my Strathmore 500 mixed media journal working from part of a photo I found on the internet. I worked by drawing the shapes within the objects rather than trying to draw a fox.  Next I shaded the darkest areas as shapes and lightly marked out the lightest areas too. My drawing already looked like a fox at this point which was a good sign!

Cross hatching came next and my approach is to put my first lines over everything except the outlined white areas, but working within the shapes I've drawn as individual sections. I then add more layers of hatching as the areas get darker until I have all 4 directions of hatching covering the darkest bits.

Once I had the cross hatching complete I added some layers of watercolour to complete the piece. It's very different from my usual style but there's lots of things I like about it.

Have you tried doing things the other way from usual in your art? How did it go?