Squirrel with peanuts

 

Our vacation home on the 'Sallandse Heuvelrug' was surrounded by bushes and trees, one oak tree that had already dropped lots and lots of acorns.

I had brought a bag of peanuts, to attract birds and of course I hoped for a squirrel. 

The peanuts were scattered on the table that was on the small terrace next to the vacation home and the waiting started...  

There were birds, robins, blue tits, great tits, blackbirds and there were squirrels. 

At least two different red squirrels (as could be seen in the colours of the tail) visited our table. They came separated from each other, they did chase each other in the trees, so I think they weren't the best of friends at that moment. On at least three occasions my husband took the camera in his hands, got seated on a chair inside the house and started making pictures.

As this was my second attempt at a squirrel (the first was made almost fifteen years ago), I started with my Sketching Crayons on a nice dark brown heavy paper.  The sketching crayons don't have a nice sharp point, like a pencil and that made my task a little harder than expected. So this is another lesson learned.

This squirrel really had a tail that was as good as black and I tried to reproduce the changes in the colours of his (or her) fur with the use of the different browns I have in my box of sketching crayons. The nose was a reddish brown and the colour changed to black at the tail. The other squirrel was not only smaller, but also had a nice red tail. 

On the back of this squirrel was some reflected light and I used my grey crayon for that. Of course this was not really easy and the result is far from brilliant, but there are more pictures to work from in the next weeks (or months) to improve myself. 

The information about the materials I have used, the size and availability of this drawing can all be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com