Before putting more color on the fox, I decided I needed to see how things would look put together first. The photo below is how it looks so far. I was originally planning to "hide" the fox in the leaves fairly heavily so that the interest would be in discovering the fox and looking for its details behind the leaves. I got a few inputs from other people and the consensus is that the fox should be relatively unhidden -- mostly because the detail in the fox is the primary interest of the viewer. I'm uncommitted to that approach, but I am thinking about it. [Hover over image to enlarge]

I spent some time this weekend preparing the backing and a "mat" (not a typical mat...I made it from MDF, but it will be placed in the frame just like a mat). I was finally able to put some color on the fox today. It's only a base coat, but it's definitely showing some signs of life. [Hover over image to enlarge]

Very little progress on this since the last entry, but I did stain the fox. Staining highlights the cuts and individual impressions in a textured piece of leather. Some people are interested in seeing it. The downside of doing so is that many of a piece's imperfections are emphasized, and if you look, you may find some in the photos below. For the most part, my 2-D pieces are usually executed well enough that such imperfections are hard to find. Not the case for the 3-D pieces. As a result, I haven't been confident enough with a 3-D piece to leave it in a stained state....it will also be colored with acrylic. [Hover over image to enlarge]