Blog September '26 - Squirrel, a pastel drawing

Autumn has arrived, and I look forward to seeing our nature transform into all its beautiful colors, such as yellow, ochre, rust, orange, red, and so many other shades. This time, I would like to share with you a pastel drawing of a squirrel, created using pastel pencils in combination with Pan Pastel.

An ideal drawing to capture all these autumn hues. After sketching the contours and drawing the eye, I color the base of the fur with various Pan Pastel colors. Colors such as Orange Shade 280.3, Yellow Ochre 207.5, Burnt Sienna 740.3, Raw Amber 780.5, and Burnt Sienna 740.8. That last color is a soft pink that I often use to blend with the aforementioned colors to soften the overall look or create a smooth transition from one color to another.

After coloring the base of the fur, shadows, highlights, and the hairs of the fur are drawn. By shading different colors in the direction of the fur hairs—from light to dark, and from yellow, orange, ochre, and earth tones to dark brown shades—you create more vibrancy in the fur. The fine downy hairs are drawn as fine lines with Pink White 788.581 and Bismuth White 788.811 from Caran d’ache.

For the finishing touch, I chose to draw only part of the branch, so that the focus is on the squirrel rather than the entire branch.

With a matching passe-partout, you not only protect the drawing but also give it a beautiful finishing touch.