A lone fox spirit drifts across a night sky, its form gliding by before a full white moon. Though drawn in precise silhouette, its pose - a lifted chin and puffed chest - suggests an aloof pride. This is a lost spirit of dreams: a creature untethered from the waking world, wandering a night sky of half-remembered wishes. Gold leaf markings swirl across its limbs and tail, catching the starlight as it moves, while a matching gold mask hides its face.

The entire background was built up with black ink, layer upon layer, drawn and then deepened with further washes to give the black a greater density. The clouds below the moon are inspired in style by Japanese woodblock skies. The white of this image is careful omission by drawing around the untouched paper. This piece also marks my second experiment with gold leaf, exploring how it can sit within ink, and above it, to create contrast both in texture and tone.