How To Draw: Otters

Otters are a favourite for many people, including me, and are always a delight to see. In today's How To Draw, I will have a go at drawing these playful creatures.

Stage One

To draw an otter on land; the body is an oval with a flat bottom (like a semi-circle but not quite), then draw another oval (a proper one this time) for the neck and draw a circle within it at the top for the head. On the other end, draw a long tail. My otter's tail is curled round it's body a bit, but you can have it straight if you wish.







Stage Two

I next draw round the basic outline, adjusting it to get the shape I want. I add basic leg shapes and facial features in too. To get the facial features in the right places, draw a line down the middle of the head and draw two lines across it. One is for the forehead and the other for the eyes, which you draw on the ends of them. At the bottom of your cross, make a circle for the muzzle and another smaller one inside at the top of it for the nose. Below the nose, draw the mouth in.



Stage Three

Now draw the outlines in pen and shade the nose and eyes in. Don't draw anything above the legs just yet. Rub out the pencil lines.











Stage Four

For the fur, start at the head and work down towards the tail. Simple lines or scribbles will create the fur's texture. The lighter areas of the muzzle and throat are created in a very light scribble. Add the whiskers in last.









Stage Five

Colour in your otter brown. I used the same brown pencil crayon but in different ways. Darker shades for the main body, slightly lighter for the muzzle and even lighter for the throat area. And that's it really. 

Stage One

Otters are great swimmers and the usual view of one is in the water. For my next drawing, I will show you how to draw an otter swimming above the surface. It isn't actually the otter I want to focus on but the water itself. The otter is drawn like a long, straight sausage flattened at the bottom edge. Start at the nose and work your way down the head, adding the muzzle, eye, ears and fur as you go. The water around it is drawn in lines that radiate from the head and stretch down the body and outwards. This is the otter's wake, which shows that the otter is moving forward.





Stage Two

Re-draw in pen next. With the fur, start with the head and sweep lines towards the body. Then along it's body, sweep the fur lines down towards the direction of the water. For the wake, start from the head end as well and create lines and scribbles with spaces inbetween each fold in the water (or ripples if you like).









Stage Three

Finally, colour in your otter as before. I used black and a bit of blue over the scribbled areas of water and left parts white to show light reflections.











Stage One

My last drawing for today is a close up on the head as a form of good practice. As always, I work out the size and shape of the head, muzzle and neck. I just scribble around until I am happy with everything.













Stage Two

I work out further on the shape of the muzzle and where each feature goes. I start from the nose and work my way round from there adding the fur and whiskers as I go.











Stage Three

With the pen, I don't draw the outline, instead I begin again at the nose and add the fur around it, improving the muzzle's shape as I do so. I compact the scribbling for the dark areas of fur. For the lighter areas of fur, I decided to make look wet. To do this, I create a series of 'W'-shaped marks which overlap each other. 

Stage Four

 Lastly, I coloured my otter in various shades of brown with a bit of orange at the muzzle. I re-draw parts of the fur again in pen. And with that, my otter is done!

I hoped you will have fun with your otter drawings and I will be back next week with some more birds to celebrate International Dawn Chorus Day. Good luck with your future drawings!