My next project is a beaver cartoon! I love beavers and think they’re so cute. We have them on the river near where I live and I’ve been lucky enough to spot them a few times. In fact this summer they even had kits!
Drawing Process
I started off by researching some pictures. It’s actually quite difficult to find a full figure beaver but I found one in the end 😊 Then I did an initial sketch. For this one I tried using shapes to make the foundation. Every art book and tutorial will tell you to do this. The advantage is that your image will fit on the page and not end up tiny or going off the edges. However I like the feel of working things out and seeing where the pencil lines take me so this is a bit out of my comfort zone. I used the Derwent pencil on Procreate for this.
This guy looks derpy as fudge and I LOVE it 😂 I get a lot of people say to me that they wish that they could draw so I want to share that these are what my drawings look like initially!
I added a new layer and neatened up my line work. I added a base colour and did some rough shading. I’m trying out the Inka brush. I experimented with both a bold and a blended look. I also changed the shape of the muzzle. I’m feeling a bold shading but I posted the two pictures on Instagram to see what people thought – the answer was unanimously bold!
Next it was onto highlights. I experimented with textures creating a hairy and an unhairy beaver! With the hairy one I progressed onto the muzzle, adding a base colour, shadows and highlights. The problem is I still haven’t decided on hairy or smooth! I could always add some more linework on the smooth beaver. At the moment I feel like the hairy beaver looks a little clumsy. I’m also quite tired so at times like this it makes sense to step away and think about it for a while. I also ask friends and family for suggestions and they often play a big role in helping shaping my art.
They agreed that the smooth beaver looks better. So next I added some highlights. I also coloured and shaded the muzzle (is this what the nose part is called on a beaver!?) someone helpfully suggested snout on my Facebook page.
Time to finish him off! The highlights of the eyes were on the wrong side so I changed that over and added some shadowing. I coloured the nose and added some shading to the teeth. In photographs beavers teeth are a lot more yellow. I tried that out but I found it looked a bit odd! I decided to leave them as white.
Next I added a darker brown for the hands, ears and tail. The claws on a beaver are a dark reddy pink colour which is unusual. I added detailing to the tail which adds a bit of texture. Then last of all I neatened up his teeth.
He is now ready to become a sticker! However I’m wondering about adding a background to make him into a print.
I decide I’d like to situate him for a print. I duplicate the canvas and group the colour layers for the beaver together and hide them so I can see my sketch better. I roughly sketch out the grass, river, bank and log then turn the opacity down and go over the linework more neatly. I start putting down a base shade of green for the grass.
A couple of grass details in the foreground are added for more interest and added shading and highlights. I worked on the log, adding bark detail to bring it to life.
Tried a couple of options for the water and decided to keep with a simple blend.
Details to the grass in the background are added as well as shading and highlights. The next step will be to neaten up the highlights and put in the sky. But do I go for a blue sunny sky or a grey sky a bit more typical of a UK day? The bubbles you can see are from me trying to put a cover on the tablet which gives the pen a bit more friction. It works well but I am not good at getting bubbles out! Also I have cat hair which gets into everything…. I think they get stuck and cause the bubbles.
Sky and some clouds are added for interest. I decided to go for a blue sky- England isn’t grey all the time as much as it can seem like it. I thought this would look more cheerful. I added shadows and highlights to the clouds. The highlights look a little bright so I think I’ll tone them down.
My beaver is finished and I’m very happy with him! I think he’s a cutie and I don’t see too many beaver drawings around so let’s bring awareness to the beaver! As a keystone species beavers create environments that helps other animals to thrive. Can you tell I love wildlife? And just animals in general!? I hope that you like him too. 😊
Want to buy my beaver? Just send me a request on what you’d like him printed on and I’ll see what I can do! Prints, Keyrings, T-shirts, Stickers and more are currently available.