Squirrel Drawing – An Easy Drawing Tutorial for Beginners
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Squirrels are beautiful little creatures that have often been a feature of many artworks from various genres. Their visual versatility can serve as a great addition to your drawing repertoire, as they can be integrated into works such as landscapes and fantasy pieces. This little woodland creature also comes with a unique set of features, making it a great drawing exercise for exploring shading, line work, and coloring. Squirrels also have a similar fur coat to that of other animals which means we will learn a lot about drawing features that can be used in other animal drawings. There is a lot to learn from a squirrel drawing, making it a fun and useful drawing exercise!
Step-by-Step Guide on How to Draw a Squirrel
The process of drawing a squirrel is really simple, we will start with a basic sketch to form the squirrel in its fundamental shapes. From there, we will refine the sketch slightly, and then proceed to work in some light layers of color. We will work with layering color into the squirrel sketch, slowly enhancing the coloration to suit the fur coat of the squirrel. As we do so, we will work with finer linework to define the various features that make them more distinct in the squirrel drawing. As we come to the end of the squirrel drawing, we will work with some darker details and highlights to refine the structure and form of the various details. Now that we know what to expect, let’s get started.
Step 1: Shaping the Squirrel
We start by forming the squirrel with a very basic sketch, with the aim of working out the basic shape of the different features.
We want to make sure that we are defining the basic shape for each feature. As we do this, we also want to take our time considering their proportions and how they fit together.
The squirrel has a small triangular head similar to that of an arrowhead, with a rounded body and a large fluffy tail. We can also draw the hands close together and make them slightly smaller than the head.
As we proceed, we want to work with our erasers and slowly tweak the shapes of the squirrel as we go. In doing so, we will get a better sense of placement for the different features within the body.
Step 2: Refining the Shape of the Squirrel
As we continue, we can refine the shape of the squirrel with more nuanced details to represent the red squirrel species.
This is where we can represent the little tufts on the edges of the ears, we can also start defining the shape of the eye more significantly. The intention is to use some linework to define the little different features and the partitions of the fur that separate different features from one another.
We can also start giving more form to smaller details such as the hands and the feet. The feet of the red squirrel is fairly large. As we proceed with refining the squirrel sketch, we can also consider looking at a reference image to assist us as we move into adding colored details.
Step 3: Adding Light Tonal Values
The intention with adding color to a squirrel drawing is to always start with lighter tonal values, and slowly build your way up with darker tonal values. The idea is to use light brown hues, slowly working your way through the entire squirrel drawing. The intention is to also think about working colors along the form of different features.
What is meant by this is that we want to make sure our colors flow in a direction that the fur would. This means we want to make the colors flow upward along the tail, and downward along the surface area of the body.
Again, we can keep our color values really light, establishing this really soft orange or brown throughout the entire squirrel drawing.
Step 4: Adding Mid-Tones to the Squirrel Drawing
As we continue, we can now start adding some mid-tones throughout the squirrel. However, it is important to note that a red squirrel has differences in its fur color. As we work in mod tones, we are both representing color variation in the squirrel drawing, but also areas of the squirrel that are darkest.
With representing the right color in an animal, you always want to stay within the spectrum of the specific color of the animal.
This means we want to build up these darker oranges, reds, and browns into the squirrel drawing. In doing so we work with dark browns on the dark side of the spectrum and lighter oranges on the light side of the spectrum.
As we proceed, we also want to maintain a fairly vague addition of color and shape into the squirrel drawing, making sure we just add lighter and darker colors in the areas that represent highlights and shadow. As we build up these colors, we will start to see that they will slowly start representing a more realistic representation of the squirrel’s unique fur coat.
Step 5: Adding Darker Tonal Values
As we keep within the color spectrum of the red squirrel, such as colors between oranges and browns, we can continue layering them.
Again, use a reference image to assist you so that you can see how the red squirrel has these variations of color within its fur coat. As we do this, we can start enhancing darker features within the squirrel, such as the eye. We want to make sure the eye is predominantly black, with a slight highlight to represent its glossy surface area. We can also continue to build up these darker brown areas around the face and eye. We can also define the dark brown section in the fur that distinguishes the tail from the body.
Once again, we can proceed by working in marks that flow along the surface area of the different features. This is where we make linework flow with the features of the body.
Step 6: Adding Unique Details and Linework
Once we have established the right base of color through a series of layers, we can proceed to enhance the squirrel drawing with some linework.
This is where we can start integrating darker oranges and reds, working them into the squirrel drawing through a process of layering lines.
We can also spend time on the face, making sure we define the lighter areas and darker areas with finer detailing. For instance, we can darken the nose, and work lines around the light ring around the eye.
We can also work in linework to enhance the outline of the various features throughout the entire body. In doing so, we are defining the different features and distinguishing them from one another. We can also start working with white linework to emphasize the highlights within different areas of the squirrel drawing.
The red squirrel has these areas where the fur is white or lighter due to how light reflects off the surface area of the dense fur. This is something we can do to enhance the lighter details within the facial features. For instance the areas near the snout, or the ring around the eye of the squirrel drawing.
Step 7: Adding Black Detailing
As a last step, we can enhance all the darkest features in the squirrel with some black shading and linework. This is useful for defining the darkest areas in the fur or where areas in the body have significant shadows.
Areas where shadows are greatest are in the hands where they bunch together, or in the tail where the tail hovers over the body of the squirrel.
Most importantly, take your time with these darker details by being careful and strategic with where you integrate them into your squirrel drawing.
Tips and Tricks to Remember
- Work out the basic proportions. You always want to work from a vague simplified shape for each feature, first capturing the basic shape of the squirrel.
- Refine the shapes into identifiable features. Once you have established the basic shapes, you can then refine the shapes into identifiable features.
- Build up colors with layers. Always build up your colors from lighter tonal values, slowly adding more colors until you reach the desired color values.
- Take time with the details. Lastly, take your time with line work, shading, and highlights as you enhance the details as a last touch.
Learning how to draw a squirrel is a simple task and requires us to break it down into basic steps. As we capture the basic shapes, we can then refine them into the various features. From there, it is a matter of building up our colors with layers and creating diversity in the colors of the fur coat. Lastly, we always want to refine the details with delicate shading and line work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Draw the Tale of a Squirrel?
The tail of a squirrel is disproportionately large in comparison to its body because of how it serves as a counterweight to aid the squirrel’s agile movements. This makes the tail seem like a large fluffy structure that flows outwardly from behind the squirrel. We draw the tail by first establishing it in its basic shape and determining how its proportions compare to the body. From there, we can start building up the tail structure with line work to define these qualities of flowing fur. The idea is to start with lighter tonal values and larger strokes, creating an undertone of color to establish the flow and base color of the tail. After, we can work in these orange and brown hues to define the unique color of the tail. As we continue, we can then refine the structure of the tail with line work.
How to Color in a Squirrel Drawing?
Squirrels differ in color, but in this tutorial, we look specifically at how to draw the red squirrel. The red squirrel has an undertone of burnt orange hues that could be layered with soft reds and browns distributed throughout the body. In the more denser areas of fur, the fur appears red, with thinner streaks of highlights. As the fur becomes more wispy and longer near the edges of the tail, these colors become much lighter tones of brown. This can be seen in the tail, but also along the edges of the ears in areas of the face near the snout and the underbelly. Whichever squirrel you draw, a good suggestion is to look at a reference image and always build your colors with layers.
Matthew Matthysen is a multidisciplinary artist. He completed his fine art degree, majoring in History of Art and Contemporary Drawing Practice at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Before joining acrylgiessen In 2020, Matthew worked part-time as an art teacher at Reddford Blue Hills High school. Matthew creates drawing and painting tutorials for acrylgiessen and captures them not only photographically and in written form. He also records the creation of his works in his own creative studio as in video format, from which later with a voiceover and a video editor also drawing tutorials for the Youtube channel of acrylgiessen are created.
Learn more about Matthew Matthysen and about acrylgiessen.
