How to Draw a Squirrel
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Start with the chest - one oval, and make it large.
The chest oval should take up around a third of the body's length on its own.
Drawing on paper instead?
We straighten and clean up the photo for you. Paper counts exactly the same.
About this drawing
A squirrel is one-third animal and two-thirds tail. The tail is a separate drawing problem - an S-curve as tall as the whole body, drawn as one flowing mass with a broken edge - and everything else is the rabbit's build at a smaller scale: big haunches, small chest, arched back.
The construction is the standard quadruped one - chest mass, hip mass, one spine curve through both - with the proportions dialled to this animal.
Step by step
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Step 1
Start with the chest - one oval, and make it large.
The ribcage is the largest single mass in almost every four-legged animal, and drawing it too small is the most common structural error in the whole category. Draw it in one motion and make it bigger than feels right.
Watch out Drawing the chest small to leave room for everything else.
Check The chest oval should take up around a third of the body's length on its own.
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Step 2
Put in the hip mass - smaller than the chest on almost every animal.
The gap between the two masses is information: it is most of what separates a long animal from a compact one. Decide the gap deliberately rather than letting it happen.
Watch out Butting the pelvis directly against the chest.
Check You should see clear space between the two ovals.
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Step 3
Draw the backbone as one line from chest to hips.
One continuous curve, drawn in one pass. The spine sets the whole animal's attitude, and a spine assembled from three short strokes reads as three different animals stitched together.
Watch out Drawing the spine as separate flat segments.
Check The curve should touch both masses without a corner.
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Step 4
Place the head mass and rough in where the neck goes.
Note where the neck leaves the chest before you place the skull - on most animals it comes off the front of the chest mass, not the top, and that single angle carries the species.
Watch out Hanging the head above the body instead of in front of it.
Check The neck guide should leave the FRONT half of the chest oval.
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Step 5
Build the neck out of two lines so it has width.
A neck is a solid with real thickness, and on most animals it is thicker than you think - nearly as deep as the head itself. Two curves, one over, one under.
Watch out A thin stick neck, which makes any animal look fragile.
Check The neck should be nearly as thick as the head is tall.
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Step 6
Connect the two ovals along the back and along the underside.
This is where the animal stops being two eggs. Let the topline follow the spine you already drew and keep the belly line taut - a sagging belly is a decision, not an accident.
Watch out Ignoring the spine curve you drew and inventing a new back.
Check The topline should agree with the spine curve underneath it.
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Step 7
Add the belly curve below the masses.
The belly is a separate decision from the masses: it hangs below the line joining them, sagging most midway, and how much it sags is part of the animal - taut on a deer, generous on a cow. Draw it as one curve, not two arcs meeting.
Watch out A straight line between the ovals, which reads as a table.
Check The belly should dip below both mass bottoms at its middle.
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Step 8
Close the body: the chest front and the rump.
Two curves seal the body into one shape: down the front of the chest into the belly, and from the top of the hips around the rump to meet it. Without them the animal has no front or back and the legs float - this is the step that turns parts into a body.
Watch out Leaving the ends open because the ovals suggest them.
Check You should be able to trace the whole body without lifting your pen.
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Step 9
Put in the forelegs - and remember they bend.
Legs are chains of segments with a joint at each bend, and every leg bends somewhere. Draw joint to joint in straight strokes first; curves come later if at all.
Watch out Straight tube legs with no joints, which read as furniture.
Check Each front leg should bend at least once.
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Step 10
Put in the hind pair, bending backwards at the hock.
The hind legs fold the opposite way to the front pair - the hock points backwards. Compare their length against the front legs rather than judging them alone.
Watch out Back legs bending the same way as the front ones.
Check Front and back feet should reach the same ground line.
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Step 11
Place the ears, and get their shape right.
Ears attach further back on the skull than feels natural, and their shape is one of the strongest species signals you have. Draw the second by comparing it to the first.
Watch out Planting the ears on top of the head like handles.
Check Both ears should attach behind the midpoint of the skull.
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Step 12
Draw the front of the head - muzzle, nose, eye.
The muzzle projects forward from the lower half of the head mass. Its length relative to the skull is the proportion to measure - it is the one that changes species when you get it wrong.
Watch out A muzzle pointing down instead of forward.
Check The eye should sit in the top half of the head mass.
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Step 13
Put the tail on, plus the markings that identify a squirrel.
Detail is suggested, never itemised. Put the marks where they identify the animal and stop early - texture spread evenly everywhere flattens the drawing back out.
Watch out Covering the body evenly in fur marks.
Check Step back: the big shapes should still read first.
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Step 14
Press harder on the keepers; erase the ovals underneath.
Press harder on the outline and the face, leave the small marks light, and erase the construction ovals. That weight difference is what makes the drawing look decided.
Watch out Going over every line at the same weight.
Check The outline should be clearly darker than the interior marks.
What it looks like finished
The same drawing with every guide erased and only the lines you meant to keep, at the weight you meant them to be. If yours still has centre lines and blocking-in shapes in it, this is the step you have not done yet - and it takes about thirty seconds.
Yours will not look like this, and it is not supposed to. This is the construction with the scaffolding taken away, not a drawing somebody made to be admired - the point is to show you which of your lines were guides.
What this one actually teaches you
What transfers is the two-mass habit. Once you see a ribcage and a pelvis instead of an outline, every quadruped becomes the same problem with different numbers - and numbers can be measured.
The squirrel is a mass-versus-line lesson: the same appendage drawn as a line is a rat and drawn as a mass is a squirrel. It is the clearest proof on the site that what a shape IS matters less than how much room you give it.
Practise these: Line confidence Proportion Value range
What you need
A pencil, kept light until the last step, and an eraser you will actually use. The construction is deliberately drawn to be removed.
If it's going wrong
If the tail is not reading, it is too thin: a squirrel's tail mass is wider than its body, and it curves up and OVER, ending above the head height.
If it looks like a rat, the same fix - the tail. A rat's is a bare line; a squirrel's is a plume. Nothing else about the two drawings needs to differ much.
If the pose is dead, sit it up: the classic squirrel holds its chest vertical, forepaws together at the chest, haunches flat on the ground.
Print the steps
Take it away from the screen. The step sheet prints on one page.
Questions people ask
- How do I draw a squirrel's tail?
- As one S-curved mass wider than the body, rising up and over to end above head height, with the edge broken in a few places. It is two-thirds of the drawing - give it the space.
- Why does my squirrel look like a rat?
- The tail is a line instead of a plume. Same body, same head - the tail mass alone separates the two animals.
- What pose should I draw a squirrel in?
- Sitting up: chest vertical, forepaws held together, haunches flat, tail S-curving up behind. It is the pose everyone recognises and the easiest to construct.
- How many steps does it take to draw a squirrel?
- Twelve here: two body masses, the spine, the head and neck, the silhouette, four legs in two pairs, then features, detail and line weight. About 12 minutes at a comfortable pace.
- Where do the legs attach on a squirrel?
- To the two masses, not the outline - front legs to the chest oval, back legs to the pelvis. Legs hung from the belly line are why animal drawings collapse.
- Can a beginner draw a squirrel?
- Yes - the construction is two ovals and a curve, and there is a finish-early step marked partway through that leaves you with a complete drawing rather than an abandoned one.
- Do I need to draw fur on a squirrel?
- Only at the silhouette edge, and only where the coat is genuinely long. Fur drawn all over turns any animal into a rug.
- What should I practise before drawing a squirrel?
- Five minutes of ellipses or line control. The whole build is ovals and committed curves, and warm hands make it a different exercise.