How to Draw and Paint Cats:My Squidoo Lens

As I seem to have mainly worked on feline art over the last few months, I decided it would be useful to have all my related links together and share them with other artists.

So I have set up a squidoo lens 'How to Draw and Paint Cats'. I will be adding to my lens on a regular basis as I find links of interest to feline artists.

It is Roxie's big day next Saturday, Crufts dog show, which is the biggest show in the UK dog show calendar. I'm sure she is aware she is being prepared for something special because she is already acting like a prima donna. She has decided it is her right to have the prime spot in the lounge when we sit down in the evening. Her right to own all the toys and have all the petting, and share everybody's meals. The other dogs are not quite so willing to go along with her and today Juno sat on her, Roma her mum nipped her and Rio hid her toys. All I can say is roll on next Sunday.

I'm experimenting at the moment with various media, pure graphite, French Grey Coloured pencils and acrylic and Sepia coloured pencils. I'm not sure which I prefer, possibly for my work the coloured pencils have more impact.

The cat is the French Grey and acrylic, the Cheetah is Sepia and Nougat coloured pencil.

Neocolor and Masquepen

I had to take my son into Leeds today so decided to see what was new at the art shop. I found a couple of treasures, some Caran d'Ache Neocolor ll water soluble wax pastels and a Masquepen.

I've been wondering how to do the background on Shred, I was going to use coloured pencil and solvent but would have lost all the fine hairs that I have already drawn. Plus I find it really difficult to put the hair back in, on top of a layer of coloured pencil to which solvent has already been applied.

I have seen the Neocolours used by other Artists and they have created some great effects so I thought I'd give them a try. I only bought three colours, Terracotta, Vandyke Brown and white. I've started to put the background on Shred with Terracotta and I really like how it's working. I'm scribbling the colour on and then using an acrylic flat and water. The wax in the pencil is resisting the wash and my hairs are safe and sound. I can always add some coloured pencilo over the top if I want.

The masquepen is an applicator for applying blue masking fluid. The applicator end has a 0.5mm nib for drawing really fine lines.I'm going to experiment tomorrow and will post the results.

Spots before the Eyes

I have been busy drawing out my new cat, which has been very time consuming, so I decided to do another dog study with Derwent drawing pencils. This time I chose a Dalmatian from my reference photographs.
It is approximately 9 x 7 inches on a bluey/grey Mi-Tientes pastel paper. I airbrushed a little acrylic to finish him off.
Please note this went through a horrible stage in the middle, but hopefully it ended up OK.
In these studies I am trying to give them a more 'immediate' look, concentrating on expression and structure rather than my more usual 'every hair drawn' finish. It is teaching me to only include what is important to the finished work, so I'm hoping this carries through into my more detailed work, time will tell.

colored pencil
Dalmatian
Derwent pencils

From first marks to giclee print

I took three of my images to the printer yesterday, one of them being my latest grey cat which now bears the title:- 'Out of Sight'.

I thought you might like to see its development. I used Prismacolor French Grey coloured pencils in Frech Grey, 10%, 20%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90% and Black. It is on Arches watercolour paper and is approximately 14 x 10 inches.

This is the finished original.

The print is shown below, it will be part of my work displayed at the Spring Fair that is held at the National Exhibition Centre at the beginning of February. The Spring Fair is one of the largest trade fairs held in the UK and it attracts a huge International audience, so hopefully it will be popular.

If you are interested in the Spring fair I have included the link below.

http://www.springfair.com/
art
cat art
colored pencil
Spring Fair

Whippet Sketch

I have not a lot of stamina at the moment after my hospital visit, and even less patience. So I decided to have a break from the grey cat and work on a sketch.

My usual style of working as you have probably realised, is highly detailed with many layers. To avoid producing a hybrid of loose and detailed,I decided to work with Derwent Drawing pencils. These are really creamy, come in 24 natural colours and have a really thick lead.

Derwent say 'the creamy, extra wide strip encourage loose, expressive tonal drawings'

I had a look through my reference photographs and selected a young Whippet as he had the short coat and beautiful bone structure i was looking for.

I set myself the challange of producing a sketch with character, you can judge if I succeeded. The one thing I would stress, is that I would never, ever, do the eyes loose, they are the soul of the portrait to me.

I intend to offer open edition giclee prints of this one in the near future.