Exercise (1) Animal Line Study. Project (5) Pets and Other Animals.

This exercise, was lots of fun.

(in spite of owning a dog and the advantage of having drawn the dog before.) I opted for cats.

Cats and Kittens.

(at a friend's house.)

(I quite like the way this kitten's face terned out.)

All of the sketches above (in my sketchbook) were done fairly fast, as I was working from life.

For my big drawing, 

I chose this photo, 

because I liked the position of the animal, 

(even if its not the best quality image.) 

Two short drawings from the photo, 

just, so to speak, to get my eye in. 

I chose to use red chalk on white support, because I had seen some drawings done so, to great effects, and wished to attempt to emulate the look.

I began with sketching in the most important lines to get the flow and curve of the cat,

 the direction of the limbs and a sense of how the rib cage went back in space. 

Then I worked on trying to get the solidity of the forms,

 putting on the fur after, 

hopefully giving a good idea of the light and the volume by how, were and in what quantity, I put the lines.

Lastly I put in a corner of a tasselled cushion,

(there is no cushion in the photograph, but I simply copied one in from life.)

My main quibble with this drawing is that I wish I hadn't put in such dark and hard lines for the cats fur,

especially as I wanted to create a soft look to the drawing, in fact I prefer the way the cushion came out, it has a nicer line to it, I think, softer and more flowing, indeed how the cat should have really looked.

I like the shape of the cat though, and I am pleased how, when having photographed the drawing and comparing it to the photo of the cat on the computer, 

I had got lots of the shape fairly right.