Learn How to Paint A Squirrel with Acrylic

Painting a squirrel is a lot of fun, and in my opinion they are incredibly underrated. They are not usually the first go-to animal when you think of wildlife artwork, however I think they make for excellent subject matter when it comes to fall and winter themed paintings, but also as an excellent subject for those who are beginner or intermediate artists looking to branch out into wildlife artwork. Today I'm going to show you how I painted my squirrel named Scout, and I hope you find this tutorial helpful for your art journey. The full-length tutorial can be found on my Patreon, so please go ahead and check out the link below as this is going to be a full-length tutorial with color mixing and brush information for you to follow along. Thank you so much and let's jump right in! The first step in our painting process is to get our squirrel sketch down onto our canvas. Now there are many ways to go about doing this, whether you decide to trace your subject, use the grid method, or you can freehand draw your squirrel, whatever you prefer, just go ahead and get your sketch done first before we start painting. The next step in our process is to go ahead and tone our canvas with an underpainting. Now I have chosen Burnt Sienna for my underpainting as this is going to help bring forth those red and orange tones in the squirrel's fur. You're going to want to take whatever color you decide and water it down to a watercolor-like consistency and use this wash all across the entire surface of your canvas. Now once that has completely dried, I can go ahead now and start to work on my background. Now with my process in acrylic, I like to work from back to front, dark to light. So that means I'm going to complete my entire background first before I go ahead and jump into painting our squirrel. Now originally this squirrel photograph has a very sort of red-orange background to it, a very warm tone, and although it's a beautiful photograph, I thought that the red-orange in acrylic might be a little too close to the colors that I was going to need to use for the fur and its texture. So I did opt to add in a little bit more green and yellow, kind of cool it down a little bit to contrast the squirrel's subject. So at this stage, I encourage you to use whatever color you feel fits your painting best, whether you're following along directly with this painting here or painting a squirrel on your own. Just keep in mind their fur, their texture, and what you want to stand out the most in your painting. Now working with these types of backgrounds with this sort of ombre, very gradient, you're going to need a bunch of different layers. So already you can see here that I'm adding in multiple different opaque layers on top of one another, and a lot of times they are wet-on-wet. So I am doing wet-on-wet blending, as you can see here, to combine two colors on my canvas before they have dried. And this is going to allow you to get a very smooth, very subtle color shift from one color to another. Now the last layer in my backgrounds, normally I will bring in my blender brush, and this is going to allow me to achieve a beautiful blended, smoky, bokeh-style effect with my paint that I normally wouldn't be able to achieve with just a standard filbert or a round brush. The coarse hair on these blenders really help push this paint around and blend them together, so I encourage you to try it out if you have not already. Once your background layers have completely dried, the next step in our painting is to go ahead and start our squirrel subject. Now the first thing I like to tackle is what I call the base layer, or the foundation layer, for this painting. Now what do I mean when I say foundation? Well essentially what I like to do at this stage is just focus on the large blocks of color that I can see all throughout my subject. This is going to act as an excellent roadmap for later on when I slowly start to add in the shadow elements, texture, and lighting to this painting. Now it's very important at this stage that we only worry about these large areas of color and we don't get distracted by things like shadows and highlights or even fur detailing at this stage. I know it can be super exciting and enticing to jump right into the details, but these base layers are really going to help mold and shape your painting for later on. So keep focused, remain patient, use a larger brush, and just focus on these large areas of color first before we move on. So the next step I'm going to tackle is getting that eye completed. Now I like to work on my eyes first in my paintings as this is really truly the thing that connects your art to the viewer and whether or not something resonates. So I really like to get this out of the way first. It's kind of the most stressful make or break moment for me, so I like to just go ahead and get this completed so I don't have to worry about it for the entire painting. So now begins the fun part. Once that eye has dried, we can slowly start to work on the detailing in our squirrel's face. Now, in my process of acrylic, and every artist is different, I like to work in small sections. So for example, in today's painting, I'm only going to worry about the squirrel's face for now and I'm not going to worry about the rest of the body. I just like to work in a more puzzle piece type way and connect them all together at the very end of the painting rather than working on them all simultaneously throughout. So what I'm doing at this stage is I'm working on building up that foundation even further. We started with an excellent base layer that gave us a guide, and now we need to go ahead and detail it. And how I go about detailing my fur is I always start with the shadow elements. So I'm going to find the darkest, deepest areas of fur that I can and block those in first. These areas could be the center of the ear that is very heavily shadowed. It can be the side of the face that is not getting a lot of light. Maybe there is some skin folding, a little bit of wrinkles on the animal. So I'm going to block those all in first, and then I'm going to slowly layer on top of those with a lighter color. Now this lighter color is going to act as our middle tone and the start of the highlighting process. So just as we did with our shadow layer, I'm going to go around the entire subject of our squirrel's face, and I'm going to block in all the areas of highlight that I can see. Now once I have a really nice foundation for the start of these highlights, I'm going to lighten this color a little bit with some titanium white, and I'm going to add in the highlights now to the fur. So it's really a two-step process. We're going to do the middle tone, slowly starting to block it in, giving us a guide of where these highlights are, and then we're going to come in with a lighter color over top and really refine those further. Now it's very important at this stage that we don't over-highlight things or over-complicate these layers. I am incredibly guilty of this at this stage in the painting when you are starting the highlighting process, but I get excited. I see the squirrel starting to come together, the fur is looking great, and I tend to just overdo it. So my biggest piece of advice when painting fur, especially at this stage, is to remember your patience and to not over-highlight things. You want that base layer, that shadow layer, and that middle tone layer to have their moment, to have their place in the painting, as they are just as important as that final highlight that makes it pop. Without those layers underneath, your fur is going to fall a little flat, and it will look a little unfinished. So always just keep that in mind, that it's easier to do your layering of your highlights slower than it is to just jump right into those brightest highlights and kind of overdo it. So that is something that even in this painting now I've had to remember after painting wildlife for years. I am always reminding myself of just that. Take your layering slowly. Think of fur as a cake that has a lot of different layers, a lot of frosting, and a lot of cake to it. And each of those layers come together to create something wonderful and something beautiful. Now that we have our fur texture down on this squirrel's head, we're going to finish the rest of the features of this squirrel. And that is going to be the ears, the ear tufts, and the mouth and nose area. We're going to get those all completed now. So just as we did with the fur texture, I'm going to use the exact same principles in the rest of this squirrel. So I'm going to start with a base layer or a guide for my eyes later on. And then I'm going to go in with the shadow elements over top. So whether it's here with the whiskers, adding those in or working in those shadows on that ear tuft, I'm always going to locate and find the darkest areas that I can. For instance, in this painting, there are a lot of heavy shadows in and around the ears tucked inside that internal area of the ear and then down towards the bottom of the chin. So I'm going to block those in first. And then from there, I'm going to add in those middle tone and those highlight colors at the very end. That basically will be my entire process, rinse and repeat throughout this entire painting. Once the squirrel's head is complete, we can go ahead now and start to work on the squirrel's body. Now the first step that I like to tackle is I like to add in a more opaque base layer on top of my original base. And the reason being is this squirrel's fur has a lot of different color changes and color shifts within it. That original base layer is an excellent starting point, but it doesn't give me the sort of guide or foundation I'm looking for to remember these subtle changes. So I do like to go in, add another opaque layer before I go ahead and worry about my detailing. Now just as we did with our squirrel's head, I'm going to rinse and repeat those same exact techniques to achieve the look of this fur. I'm going to add in all of the dark shadows that I can see, followed up by my mid-tone and my highlight color. So I'm going to finish off this canvas left leg first. That's kind of my starting point and comfort zone when painting this squirrel's body. And then I'm slowly going to work my way across the painting and I'm going to be working on the chest area as well as the canvas right leg. Now it's very important at this stage that we remember our layering properties and that's going to be working from back to front, dark to light. This canvas right leg as well as the canvas left side of the body are tucked behind that large section of forearm and the chest itself. So our perspective of this squirrel, the sort of part that I'm working in now is what we see first and everything else is in the background. So not only is it going to be tucked behind, it's also going to be much less detailed. So a little piece of advice would be to finish your chest last as there's going to be some wayward hairs kind of creeping out from the chest area into the arm section. And rather than doubling back and making more work for ourselves, if we finish the chest last, it's our last layer and we know that we don't have to paint anything else around it or on top of it. And the canvas left right now, what I'm painting is also a perfect example of this as that body is tucked behind that elbow. So I'm going to do that section of the painting first. I'm worried about those layers and then I'm going to go over top as I'm doing now with that sort of elbow fluff. I know that's the closest to us in our perspective and also the lightest layer back to front, dark to light. I'm going to complete that last and that you'll see makes a perfect sort of example or the illusion that that forearm is ahead of that sort of body belly section. So just keep that in mind. Same thing can be said about the chest or the sort of thigh or knee area on the canvas right. All right. So I have to be honest. This section in the painting was my least favorite. I'm sorry that I did not realize how ugly squirrels feet are. And so in my painting, I decided to kind of be a little bit creative and leave some of these details of the squirrel feet out. So essentially I'm just coming in with a bit of a shadow and a sort of outline of the feet and then coming in with a light highlight and those nails. And that is about it. I decided in my painting that this would be out of focus, covered by foliage, and I did not want it to be the superstar. I wanted the chest and the face to be the thing that draws in the viewer. And the feet are just kind of there and a part of the squirrel. I'm sorry. I did not realize they were this strange looking. So I just kind of, you know, left them alone. You know their feet. And then I moved on. So working towards the canvas right, we're finishing off this squirrel just by adding in a little bit of a sort of shadow and a highlight to this thigh area. The top right of this thigh is going to be the most illuminated as that is going to be catching and reflecting the most light in our painting. Once you have finished your squirrel, we can go ahead and start to work on the tree and the foliage, which is the lower half of the canvas and then we're done. So to get started, I like to work in my shadow color and just block in all the areas of the bark or the tree texture I can see. Now I'm sort of letting my brush do the work for me. I'm not really being too methodical or precise with my brush strokes. I'm just letting the tip of my brush sort of create these very fun, very loose textures on my tree trunk. And from there, a sort of piece of advice that I found helpful for me as well was to have about six to seven different greens mixed on my palette before I started and that I could kind of jump back and forth between as I painted this tree trunk. The reason being is because nothing in nature is just one color. There's always going to be some sort of variation, whether it's the lighting conditions, whether it's sort of reflecting or maybe a part of the tree is wet and others are dry. So it kind of just helps with that texture. And again, kind of working smarter, not harder, gives us that gradient or that very sort of natural look a lot easier. You could also do this with some wet on wet blending on your canvas as well and just mix new green colors on your canvas already and just kind of play around with your paint that way. Once I have a good base, I slowly start to add in my lightest greens. And this part of the tree is sort of moss covered or sort of foliage covered. And so I like to add that in and sort of get that pop before I moved on to our leaves. Now with the leaves, you can choose whatever color you prefer. I opted for a more fall type theme and followed the reference. But if you wanted to make these green as well, you could. Entirely up to you. Now just as everything else that we've done in this painting, I work from dark to light back to front. So I'm painting all of those furthest away leaves first in the darkest colors, and then I'm coming in over top with my midtone and my highlights. Now something to keep in mind as well is that every one of these leaves is different. So you can see here that I've added in different shades of pink, different shades of red, a little bit of brown tones in there as well. You're going to want to have some variation so that not all of these leaves are the same and some of them do stand out way more than others. It's also important to keep in mind their positioning, whether some of them are curling, some of them are folded, maybe twisted. Not everyone is going to be a flat, perfect leaf that the viewer can see. The one in the front there, kind of right in the middle, you can see is kind of coming towards us and is kind of a strange shape. So just keep that in mind as you are painting to not have everything moving in one direction. The last little step of my painting, I like to bring my Molotow marker in and just add in a few highlights. This is a more artistic decision. You do not need to add those, but along with my signature, I think it just pops these right off the canvas and creates for a cool effect. And there you have it. There is my finished painting I have titled Scout. I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial and I hope you had fun painting along with me today. If you enjoyed today's tutorial, I would love it if you could leave a like and a comment letting me know what you would like to see next. And of course, don't forget to hit the subscribe button if you have not already to join our YouTube family. A big shout out to our channel sponsors ChartPack, Grumbacker and Molotow for sponsoring today's video. Their links can be found in the description box below. Thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next one.