Be the best at drawing cats

In the past lessons we showed you how to draw a sleeping cat accurately. A cat or kitten is easy to draw when its resting because it will normally remain in the same pose for a long time. When drawing cats remember how to convey the curve of the body, muscles and limbs well. Make your lines accurate and study them. You can even show colours when using only pencil or ink to draw. I have used fine lines, dots and dashes to give an illusion of different colours and tones.

Study the drawings on Figure 1. In this pose she is sitting on her tail. If your drawing goes wrong, don't worry. Look again and then re-draw. It pays to be determined and patient.

With most modern drawing pens you can work very fast. The ink will not smudge easily.

Even with a pencil you can produce an excellent pencil drawing using a hard pencil (H) for the outline, then a soft one (4B) to give middle tones and deep shades.

Figure 1 also shows the thin outline sketches done by pen and ink. In the bottom sketches observe the drawing on the right done with dots and dashes to show fur.

Copy these sketches in pencil or pen. Fill in the fur details and practise them. You will turn out to be excellent at drawing cats.

Observe Figure 2. A friend's pet was used as a model. She is a large tabby with a nice gentle disposition. She has very dark markings along her back. Her stripes are black and her face and chest are white.

Although you may copy the illustration with great accuracy, your efforts will still not produce the same results. Your drawing may not be exactly like the ones I have done.

This is good because, it shows that you are developing your own unique style. You can turn out to be the best 'cat' artist in the world!