Tutorial N°9 : How to paint a squirrel in winter.

Material:

Hahnemühle 425 grs watercolor paper. watercolours Winsor and Newton: Aureolin, raw sienna, burnt sienna, burnt umber, French ultramarine, Phthalo Turquoise, Carmine, Payne's Gray. A tube of white gouache. Two brushes : squirrel (Raphaël n° 3/0), one little sable brush (Raphaël n°1 kolinsky) for détail, masking fluid (to be filed with a shaper brush), palette to prepare colors, grey pencil HB, 2 cups of water clear: one to wet the paper always very clean and rinse the brushes; paper towel.

1. I drew the squirrel from the photo with colored pencils.

2. Drawing.

3. Mask the white of the eye with the masking fluid. I put washes of raw sienna, carmine, burnt sienna, burnt umber, after slightly moistening the paper. In the darkest parts, I Added Payne's Gray working wet in wet.

4. For eyes, I used the fairly steady French ultramarine. For the tail, I peint a few wash of mixture of burnt sienna and Carmine, then once dry, I put burnt sienna, the brush has to work very flexibly.

5. Add dark shadows with burnt sienna mixed with Payne's Gray. To mark the snowflakes, I used white gouache applied thickly in some places because gouache turns gray as it dries.

6. the eyes will be painted with a mixture of Payne's Gray and burnt umber. The same for the whiskers. All the shadows on the white of on the belly are painted with a mix of French ultramarine, burnt sienna, in the darkest parts, I Added Payne's Gray. The trunk of the tree is painted with a wash highly concentrated in pigments, raw sienna, burnt umber and a mix of aureolin, Phthalo Turquoise and French ultramarine, to make appear the relief of the bark, add in the still-wet wash Payne's Gray.

I advise you to do tests before you start painting.

Enjoy your painting.