Now I'm painting the third friend, Hugo the Hare. This picture is a good excuse for me to write about my use of colour.

The painting is actually only about two inches high but it shows that, even though this is so small, there are four different shades of brown I employ to get the look I'm after. Shading from light to dark is important because it gives your character form and the illusion of being in 3d. You can also see clearly in this picture the different kind of marks i am making - I love it when the paint is just beginning to run out; that's when you get broken, scrabbly marks which you can see in the middle of Hugo's head.