I was really looking forward to seeing the sea otters, and my daughter was joining me on Zoom for this one as she is a huge fan of sea otters, and my mum dialled in from her holiday cottage so it was quite a family affair. I was feeling slightly intrepid having viewed the reference images, as I’m not particularly skilled at drawing mammals, and the colours are all in the brown/grey palette which again is less inviting than say, a flamingo. The brilliant things about these sessions is that even if the drawing element itself is less successful, they are raising funds and awareness, and it’s a great way to study a species and just watch an animal you’d not normally see so close.
They really are so like seals and have many similar adaptations for a marine life. Unlike our Eurasian otters here in the UK, the sea otters’ back legs are much more like flippers, and indeed they can pull themselves along on their front legs and let their back legs flow out behind them. They don’t have blubber like seals though, so grooming is vitally important to keep the fur in good condition and capture air in the filaments to provide insulation. Baby otters learn grooming from their mums, and orphaned otters who miss this vital lesson can struggle with keeping themselves warm and waterproof and would not thrive in the wild.
The two rescued sea otters at Birmingham Sea Life are from Alaska, and can’t be released so are being used as ambassadors for kelp forests and marine environments generally. We heard from the caregivers at the Aquarium about how they are working with the otters to keep them healthy and stimulated, and as usual, it was wonderful to hear about them while they were swimming in the background.
Drawing them was quite difficult as they are very fast, and twist and turn and tumble under the water which, although clear, is quite shallow by the sides near the glass. Their fur traps bubbles of air so they look like liquid silver as they swoosh around which is fantastic to watch but less easy to capture on paper in real time.
I used my Clairefontaine sketchbook and some soluble graphite pencils and did some quick sketches of the main shapes and sense of movement.
blog and website 