Long Island Northern Grey Squirrel

MEDIUM: Digital Painting | STYLE: Painterly Realism | SIZE: 8 x 10 | ORIENTATION: Portrait | TOOLS: Procreate, 13″ iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro | AVAILABILITY: Prints available.

The Northern Grey Squirrel, a frequent visitor to Long Island homes, provides endless entertainment. Intelligent and clever, it leaps from branch to branch, climbs anything in sight, and finds its way into containers holding edibles. This particular squirrel posed on a backyard fence, pausing to study the artist’s activity with obvious curiosity — a perfect subject for this piece. It completes a companion trio alongside the Curious Chipmunk and Long Island Cottontail, both part of Shadowmyst Art’s collection.

ARTIST’S PROCESS: Long Island Northern Grey Squirrel was painted in Procreate on a 13″ iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil Pro. This technique replicates traditional painting’s depth and texture through layered digital brushwork. The process began with careful structural drawing, followed by multiple rounds of color blocking, value refinement, and fur texture detail to capture the species’ appearance and temperament. Shadow and light were built up using multiple Procreate layers and specific brushes, and the subject was placed within a natural outdoor setting.

CHALLENGE: A squirrel’s tail has a very different structure and appearance from the rest of the body — long, thin, with fine fur that stands away from the skin, leaving visible space between strands unlike the dense body fur. Up close, the tail is visible through the fur; from a distance, it reads as thick and full. Using a thin Procreate brush adapted to lay down multiple single strands per stroke, the tail fur was built up section by section on layers above the actual tail shape, preserving the space between individual strands while still giving the viewer the appearance of the “bushy” tail squirrels are known for.

SUBJECTS AND THEMES: Wildlife — Nature — Northern Grey Squirrel — Squirrel on a Fence — Suburban Wildlife — Long Island Wildlife — Woodland Creatures — Procreate Artwork — Painterly Realism