How to get proportions correct

This lesson will teach you how to get the correct proportions to draw different types of cats found in every village, town and city.Cats always seem to be smiling due to a gently curved mouth line. Observe how small and delicate the nose is. The lower jaw fits well into the top jaw. A cat has a pronounced forehead. This feature varies slightly from cat to cat, as does the length of the nose.

Animal faces are like human faces. Everyone is unique. Cats , by the way, spend three quarters of their lives asleep or resting. This is good for artists. Study the outline drawn in the first illustration given here with a dotted circle and the cat's face drawn from the front (bottom illustration).

Once you learn each feature you may not have any problem in doing a sketch of any cat.

The most common errors I see beginners make include drawing the cat's nose too big and the ears perfectly triangular, which they are not. In fact, they are petal-like in structure with curved ends. Beginners tend to draw the eyes too large and too high in the face. There is a black skin around a cat's eyes. We normally see the bottom half of this. The top half is usually covered by a fold of skin - a cat's eyelid.

However, in a drawing, little more than the outline shape of the eye is enough to portray it without excess detail. Also in Figure 1 notice that the basic shape is oval.

The ears are pointed up. Roughly half way between ear tips and bottom of the lower jaw is where the eyes look out. Half way between the eyebrows and lower jaw line is where the top of the nose is.With a little practice you will soon get these proportions right. Copy the example in pencil, then ink it in. Practise drawing more cat heads from life, books or from photographs until you can draw them from memory.