Charlotte asked for foxes. I haven't had a close encounter with a fox in a while - I've not been out at dusk enough. So I thought I'd try my hand at drawing a fox, which turned out to be really educational.

At my first fox attempt, I put down a few outlines, as I usually do. It looked wrong. I made corrections. Fox ears are much bigger in proportion to fox heads than I registered at first glance. It's all too easy to have the fox look like a cat, or a dog, or a bear, or a racoon. Probably other creatures too, but these were the ones I accidentally invoked as I was trying to get the nose and mouth right on the first attempt.

Even when I got the shape right, what I'd drawn did not convey 'fox'. 

I stared harder at my reference photos. It dawned on me that foxes are not expressed well by firm lines. Foxes are floofy. Foxes in the distance can look sleek, but not close to. So I started again, drawing guide lines, but being more alert to the fluffiness. I took more of a layered approach. 

It struck me that if you try and state what a fox is, you already don't have a fox. Foxes, it turns out, can only be implied.