Virtual Sketch; Cat in Graphite and India Ink

As promised yesterday, here is the result of my attempt at drawing Jeanette's cat Tripod.

It was great fun drawing from someone else's cat photo, and Tripod is a lovely cat to draw. Because this was just for fun I experimented with laying down the graphite. I did much more blending than I usually do and used graphite dust from my 4B pencil rubbed on with a stump in some places. I also painted India Ink in the really dark areas.

As a technique I will explore it in more depth as I think it has promise for achieving areas of soft focus.

Sadly I didn't finish the sketch but hopefully it is a reasonable likeness of Tripod. I did put a cat book behind him so that he could have a read if he got bored with drawing.

Don't forget to look at everyone else's drawings, I posted all the links yesterday.

I would really like to join in another virtual sketch if anyone else is up for it.

A Christmas ACEO

I was planning this years Christmas card yesterday and liked the kitten I was drawing so much that I let him star in his own ACEO.

I added a mouse so he wouldn't feel lonely, and called it 'Waiting for Santa Paws'. It is coloured pencil and acrylic on drafting film.

My 2007 Christmas card is heading for 2008 if I keep getting distracted.

Water, Water Everywhere

Van Gogh had to be put on hold over the weekend as we had a flood.

A pipe in the cupboard where I keep the dog towels, dog bedding etc decided to explode. Now you probably think this is an exageration, but if I tell you my eldest son was soaked to the skin in about 60 seconds as he tried to stop the deluge will give you an idea of the force of the water.

Of course my husband was out and I couldn't turn the water off. In the time it took for me and Rob to change places, the water was coming through the ceiling, gushing from the light fittings and running down the walls.

To make matters worse I had been in the middle of making a chicken curry for lunch, and never ones to miss an opportunity the pups managed to eat the vegetable skins and half the raw chicken.

Saska and Clinton were horrified at this disruption to their morning and retreated from the chaos to the peace of our bedroom. The other four took up vantage points and helped us, by tripping people up, getting into the water etc.

I think they rather like the idea of having a permanent waterfall in the cupboard.

Drying things out is taking considerably longer than wetting them did, but at least the pups had no side effects from their rather unusual lunch.

I did continue with my kitten, I have darkened the background to make him stand out more but much more work is needed on it yet.

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