Ermine

Description

Ermine is an original watercolour painting by artist Amy Letts. It features an Ermine, also known as a short-tailed weasel or stoat. It is not always white; it’s coat changes from brown to white during winter.

The Ermine is a preferred form for Lyra’s Daemon Pantelimon in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials book series.

This painting was created by first masking out the ermine to protect the white of the paper. All of the white you see is preserved, not added. This is a technique specific to watercolour. The added greys and browns are very lightly and delicately applied, so as not to lose any of the brightness.

The background is very detailed, created with many layers of texture  using cling film. This is then more worked into using watercolour and ink to bring out that texture as much as possible, suggesting undergrowth, twigs and leaves.