Watercolor Otter Illustration – Step by Step

Painting an otter illustration with watercolors a hundred times is quite a challenge, here’s how I did it in 2018.

Some time ago I made a post on my Twitter account to find out what thing to draw in 100 copies. I had prepared a sheet with 100 small boxes to celebrate 1000 followers on Insta and 2500 on Twitter. I was asked for pangolins (very tempting), everyday scenes (100 scenes! wiw), food (which I will surely do one day) and: a drawing of otters. So I picked the otters. I made a list some time ago to find the references of my equipment if you’re interested ♥

Photo referecences for watercolor painting

Here we go for a giant drawing of otters (the illustration, not the otters). I first looked for references to take in the shape of the world’s cutest mustelid. I takes a while to get used to something’s shape and video helps. Usually I also like to look at skeletons for basic structure and shapes. The photo reference for me is often more of a rather vague phase where I record the mechanics and patterns, the colors. There are also many species of otters, I have kept a general form rather than a reference to a particular species.

Building an illustration with many items

For this otter illustration, working in boxes is easier than starting an illustration without a frame. I started out with quite small subjects – as you can see in the image of the initial sketch. Then the drawings of otters took up more and more space in the boxes. With more knowledge of my subject, I was more comfortable. At the end of the sketch and thanks to a valuable outside perspective, I erased a few of the first in order to balance out the visual rhythm of the whole piece.

One can notice the difference with the inked drawing below, where the otters are more consistent in size and shapes. The whole sketch took about 2 nights to complete.

Inking the otter illustration

After the pencil, I moved on to inking the drawing of otters. Which was quite long too and not as easy as usual because the Arches paper is very textured, a little too much for my taste. I inked with a fountain pen with a water-resistant archival ink in brown. I kept the brown to be able to keep a certain softness in the image. I avoided the classic nib because I knew after tests that it would snag and the risk of accident would be higher.

I also scanned my otter drawing at each stage to be able to do this article and then possibly come back to a step if something happened – like an ink spot or a smudge.

Coloring the otters one by one

At first I hesitated between fantasy colorful otters or simply natural colored ones in shades of brown, I picked the latter.

Painting this watercolor of otters was the quickest step, in two short sessions it was done. I varied the colors of the otters to maintain a certain harmony without falling into monotony. I gradient the extremities with the same rather neutral dark brown to maintain uniformity in the variations. So I had to work on each otter with paint that was still wet to adjust the gradients. This requires being quite quick since it was done in winter, it was easier as the watercolor dries slower.

Ensuite, je suis passée sur toutes les joues, avec la même teinte de rose. Enfin j’ai travaillé une ombre légère pour noter un petit volume. Des espaces blancs inégaux me gênaient, je les ai donc comblés par des petits éléments végétaux. Et voilà !

After painting each body, I used the same pink for each little blushed cheek and then I painted a light shadow to give each otter some weight and volume. Some white spaces were too wide or uneven, so I used green leaves to add some harmony and link each little otter throughout the whole painting. And Voilà !

Would you like some more otter painting ?

In the end, I scanned my painting ( 8 times in total) and then I adjusted it and cleaned up a bit. I fixed the file to upload it on my Inprnt Gallery and sell some quality artprints.

I had initially planned on a giveaway with this but it became so much more than just a small doodle. I kept it for a while and then sold the original art after a few years. We also made some washi tape with The Washi Station !

After painting this and taking up ceramics, one of my first figurine was an otter. You can find some otters on the online boutique.

Who likes numbers ? I do !

• 100 otters + 1 baby = 101 otters
• 1 unicorn otter and 16 otterlings
• 31 x 23 cm (1 otter per 7cm²)
• 15/17 hours of work total
• 8 scanns put together
• 15 files (source, varied formats, web and HD)
• Available prints
• Available Washi Tape
• Loads of love !