Expressive Drawing - Old Cat - image 1 - student project

I chose as a subject my cat, Maggie, because I have a good idea of what she looks like so felt comfortable working from imagination. I thought that working from a photo I would be too tempted to try and reproduce it more realistically, I wanted to keep it expressive as discussed in the lesson.

I used 2H pencil, 2B pencil, 6B pencil, eraser, black pencil, yellow marker, white gel pen, red pencil and a black ink pen.

I'm happy with the face and the soft shading on the chest, and satisfied with the overall gesture. I really like that the shoulder line reminds me of the cave paintings from the early part of the lesson, I feel that I abstracted her shape well. I think I could have been more deliberate and precise with the yellow marker, particularly around the whiskers and the black patch on her head is very flat. Next time I will try to introduce more variety into my mediums, most of the drawing is in pencil and I can sense a bit of my hesitation in the piece.

I had a good time surrendering myself to my 'art hand', I've been thinking so intensely while drawing lately because I've been trying so hard to get better, it was nice to try a completely different style and let go of a bit of that tension.

Thanks so much for the class David, and here is a picture of my muse:
Expressive Drawing - Old Cat - image 2 - student project

(she sat behind me purring the whole time!)

Merlin Asmundr

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