The White Squirrel

The White Squirrel showed up in our yard right around the time we installed a new fence.  The squirrel had a very unusual, almost white or cream colored coat that was very close the color of the new fence.  Further research revealed that he is probably a leucistic white squirrel, and not a true albino squirrel.  Leucistic squirrels have white or creamy fur and typically brown or black eyes.   True albino squirrels are much whiter with red eyes.  Scientists believe that leucisim is based on DNA, but environmental factors may result in epigenetic changes to gene expression. The white squirrel and the new fence happened around same time that a pair of red-tailed hawks also showed up on our property.  Changing colors to match the fence would seem to give a white squirrel a bit of extra protection from the hawks.

I sketched this with my automatic HB pencil, based on a picture of our backyard.  I used two Conte a Paris Pencils, Pastel 008 (bright spring green) and Pastel 030 (deep forest green).  I laid down a base of light green, and filled in the more shady spots with a layer of dark green.  These pencils are interesting because they have a soft, powdery texture, almost like charcoal.  To achieve a sun-dappled effect, I used a kneadable eraser to lift some highlights which I then filled in with a Faber-Castell light yellow ochre watercolor pencil.

For the squirrel, I used a a Prismacolor burnt ochre pencil for light touches of brown which I blended with a soft white charcoal pencil.  Then I added light touches of yellow ochre until it looked about right. I used my HB pencil to strengthen the outline with a few restatements. 

The fence was similar, except that I used a metallic silver colored pencil for additional highlights.

Winnie in Repose

I drew this based on the principles of Keys to Drawing, by Bert Dodson. His method is to draw lines based on what you see, and then enrich with textures and detail. I also used Chat GPT to help plan it out and to provide guidance for refining it. I sketched the initial outline with an automatic HB pencil.  Then I used darker graphite pencils from my drawing kit to create the different zones of shading. I also used a pen-style mechanical vinyl eraser stick to lift highlights for additional contrast.   The texture is created with small, short, curving or straight lines flowing in the direction of Winnie's fur. The initial draft had good texture, but the graphite was too light and not the best representation of Winnie's black fur.  So I went over it again with charcoal pencils. Soft charcoal for the darker areas, medium charcoal for the lighter areas, using the same short curved and/or straight strokes.  I noticed that the graphite base was hard to draw on and didn't absorb the charcoal as well as I expected.  But I just used more pressure and turned the pencil a bit when I needed to, and then I was able to complete the darker charcoal layer.    I actually had several drafts of Winnie in Repose.  I was pretty happy with the lines and the shape, but I needed several tries to get the texture right. I used an artist's light pad to trace a new, clean version of my initial outline so that I could easily start over and just focus on the texture.