One of our Resident Squirrels

Not sure how long this will last but I seem to be on a bit of a roll.  I went for the last couple of months lacking motivation and I'm surprising myself with what I've done this month so far.

It's so much fun watching the squirrels outside my window.  It's a game of sorts with these cunning creatures trying to stay one step ahead of them when it comes to the bird feeders.  Or finding ways to keep them from climbing on the roof and finding ways into the attic.  But even with the challenges we face, I love watching them. 

This is from a photo I took last summer.  I pulled the photo up on my computer screen and worked the drawing on my Ipad using Procreate.  I used the airbrush soft tool, technical pen, and a flowing or fine hair tool.  I'd make a few marks and then use the smudge tool just touching here and there to depict the fur.  Other times I'd use the eraser to "lift" color and then blend the surrounding colors to soften the edges of the erased marks.

This was a lot of fun to do and didn't take me as long as I thought it would.  When I first started, I had no idea how I would work the fur.  I made a few trial and error marks first as I worked through and decided on which brush tools to use.  It definitely took some thought process and testing before I found what worked for me.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I could easily pick this apart and find areas I could improve on but I'm calling it done.  :-)