Fall is that one time of year where the squirrels seem to be extra busy. I see them everywhere! Collecting their acorns and getting into trouble. I hear that they have to bury extra acorns because they won’t remember where they put most of them. So if they just put an acorn everywhere, maybe they or one of their friends will be lucky enough to find it by accident.
This squirrel was painted with watercolor and colored pencil on hot press watercolor paper. I like the hot-press for fur because it doesn’t allow for much bleeding of the colors. The edges of every stroke stay sharp, whereas cold-press paper allows for fuzzy edges and bleeding, which is better for landscapes or large blocks of color. Hot press paper also eats a lot of the color up while the paint is drying. You can put down a stroke, which looks dark and vibrant while wet, but as soon as its dry it suddenly looks dull. This means layering is essential for building up strong colors, but neutrals are easier to control. In this case, I didn’t want my colors to get too bright because squirrels’ fur is neutral. Even if I made a mark that was a little too red or a little too blue, the hot-press paper helped to de-saturated the colors slightly as I painted, and left me with a very crisp and clean result
You can get your very own print of this little guy for just $7 through my Etsy store!
