https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/draw-a-cat-in-fifteen-minutes • Posted by Jake Spicer
Cats can be surprisingly good models when they are in the right mood, their natural curiosity means that they might just stay sitting for you for a few minutes as you draw them. Then again they might not, in which case you may just be better of working from a photograph! This approach could work with either; the pencil drawing stage is all about gathering information, the pen drawing stage is the more laborious part of the process an can be applied later if you have gathered enough detail in your underdrawing. This exercise is taken from my book 'Draw Cats in Fifteen Minutes'.
Cats can be surprisingly good models when they are in the right mood, their natural curiosity means that they might just stay sitting for you for a few minutes as you draw them. Then again they might not, in which case you may just be better of working from a photograph! This approach could work with either; the pencil drawing stage is all about gathering information, the pen drawing stage is the more laborious part of the process an can be applied later if you have gathered enough detail in your underdrawing. This exercise is taken from my book 'Draw Cats in Fifteen Minutes'.
Start with some simple shape, a circle for the head and an oval for the body. These should be based on what you're looking at so find a shape that best suits the cat you are drawing and the pose they are in.
Develop on the initial shapes, drawing in ear shapes, legs, paws and tail. Draw simplified shapes based on what you see, not what you imagine should be there.
Lightly erase the pencil underdrawing and start to develop the outline of the cat, using a light broken line for the edges of the cat's fur.
Draw around the shapes of the cat's markings in pen, keeping your marks light and confident.
Build up shapes of darker tone with quick marks drawn down in the direction of the fur. Work quickly and intuitively, building up darker tone where you see shadows and darker markings.
Keep building up tone until you're happy with the density of, leave space for the light and you're done!