One last effect: Using some of the Fluid Acrylic Colors (Hansa Yellow Light, Green Gold, Turquois (Phthalo), Ultramarine Blue, Violet Oxide and Titanium White) and a couple other colors for tinting (Burnt Sienna and Yellow Oxide) - I squirt a little bit of each of these into a 'butcher's pan' (flat, ceramic coated pan - good for mixing colors) and using a dry sea sponge I just sort of randomly mix these colors and then dab them onto areas of the stone head to represent the various lichens and fungus that grow on stones and old fallen trees. After applying these colors, I use the same blue/black tinting mix from Step 10 and I add a little more shadow detail to give these fungi dimension. Background is done for the most part.

Now I begin the foreground figure of the Jaguar by laying in the basic dark values. Having had the experience to see Jaguars ‘up close and personal’ I know their black spots to be very deep browns for the most part, so the basic dark values here are created using a 10:1 mix of Raw Umber and Carbon Black. These areas will have more depth later on in conjunction with the colors that will be layered over and around them.

Moving to the nose - I start with a 10:1 mix of Titan Buff to Burnt Sienna, the add a couple more drops Burnt Sienna, the a drop Red Oxide, then Raw Umber, and finally Dioxazine Purple. With each successive shade of this color, I move more into the areas that would be further away from the viewer, leaving the original first shade of this color as the areas of highlight. This same ‘nose color’ has also been applied to the tongue and gums accordingly, and on certain areas of the head where the sunlight will fall, causing a different perception to the color of the fur.

A general base coat of a 'tawny' yellow color is laid down on all those areas of fur that would be so colored as well as the teeth, and a little highlighting on the nose. This base color consists of mostly Titanium White, a couple drops of Hansa Yellow Medium and a drop or two of Yellow Oxide.

I continue to build on the basic coloration of the fur area by creating deeper, darker mixtures of my original fur base color - White, Hansa Yellow Medium & Warm Yellow Oxide, then a couple drops of Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Gold, Red Oxide and Raw Umber - with each successive darker value, I add more detail to the fur, leaving the original base coat exposed in certain areas to give the perception of the highlights in the fur. It is more a matter of an allusion to the idea of fur, than doing every individual hair follicle.