Anatomy of a Design: Riverwalk

A peak into my design process.

A few years ago, a young woman came into my shop and said, “I really love all the animal prints. How come you don’t have an otter?” I responded that I was focusing on native animals. “They are native!”, she said. “They are coming back to our rivers.” It turns out this young woman was the otter keeper for our local aquarium.

It’s such a cool story. North American River otters lived in New Mexico rivers but were wiped out in the 1950’s from the normal culprits (habitat destruction, hunting). About 15 years ago, a determined group of people from local tribes, state government and environmental groups decided to work together to bring them back. “Nuisance otters” that were plaguing fishery operations in Washington and Louisiana were given one-way tickets to our rivers. The story gets even better: we have some endangered fish in our rivers and wildlife people did worry that would be an issue. But, it turns out that the otters find an invasive crayfish pretty tasty – which helps the fish.

There have been otter spottings along the Rio Grande with rumored sightings as far south as Albuquerque.

When I created the my otter illustration, I was looking for a piece of artwork with a more muted, earthy tone. I chose this print because I liked the palette and I liked the way the lines evoked water running off wet otter fur.

From this piece of art, I created a repeating pattern I call “On the Loom”. A repeating pattern is a pattern that repeats seamlessly in every direction. I.e., it has no edges.

Next, I created a line drawing of an otter family using Inkscape, my graphics design software of choice.

Then, I ‘painted’ the illustration using my patterns – primarily “On the Loom” but also “Sweet Yellow Flowers”, “Ghostly Wildflowers” and “Autumn Mums”. This step takes some finessing so that the patterns look like they belong. I rotate, scale up and down and mix patterns to accentuate the shape of the animals. To top it all off, I add whiskers and a glint in the eyes.

Sometimes, I go beyond a single illustration and create another repeating pattern that is comprised of multiple elements. “Riverwalk” combines the otter family, along with a turtle, toad and dragonfly and some riverbank plants and rocks.

“Riverwalk” is also the name of a collection of illustrations that is featured in my children’s book “It’s Time for Bed”. The otter, turtle and dragonfly are in this sweet bed time story along with other native animals that can be found along the banks of the Rio Grande.