Painting a squirrel

The grey squirrel is another animal which has taken to our towns in a big way. Squirrels are seen everyday in our garden. Children are fond of them and they feed them whenever they get a chance.

You will notice that the head shape of the squirrel is similar to that of a mouse or rabbit. Squirrels are nervous creatures which move rapidly.

The squirrel shown in Figure 1 is a common pose, sitting up to eat. I have drawn only the basic outline to get the formation correct for you to draw before painting. Study the seated pose and copy it with a sharp HB pencil.

In the sketch shown below you can clearly see I have given the shadings. At first a wash of pale reddish brown mixed with burnt sienna with little yellow ochore, is put over those parts of the squirrel on which the longer grey fur does not completely erase the brown. A paler more yellow wash is added around the eye and a pale yellow is used inside the ear.

A wash of grey is then applied over the whole squirrel and a small area around the eye is kept white.

The squirrel's eye is added in black, just before it is dry, water is dropped into the middle and blotted up with a brush.

You may observe the sketch Figure 2 on the right side. A light grey is applied over the body of the squirrel using a mixture of burnt sienna.

When the wash is half dry, a strong mixture of the same colour is used to bring out the texture of the skin.

Notice the thin line used to depict the fur. I used a fine No.1 pointed brush to paint the fur. Long hairs applied to the tail, very dark grey over the central part.

Next, the ears, toes, claws and nose are painted with a fine brush. Short hairs are put on the squirrel's body head, feet and the whiskers finishing the painting.

I used thick drawing paper 250 grams, Bond or Kent paper. No 1, 2 and 6 sable ‘hair’ brushes and for the details like fur a pointed No 1 brush or thin nib pen.

Keep practising these drawings until you become perfect in painting squirrels.