The main challenges:
As we have a resident feline, it was my natural choice to use him as a model. Prior to doing this project I didn’t have much experience of sketching cats, but it wasn’t totally new to me either as I had made the odd quick sketch of cats before.
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one of the first of many cat sketches
- lots more on view in my sketches blog |
In the early stages I tried sketching him when awake and sometimes found it almost impossible to complete a sketch – I was lucky to even get the shape of the head down on paper. It seemed to make sense at this point to wait until he was asleep before attempting to do any serious sketching. When I did this things became much easier. Although even when he stretched and changed position just slightly (which happened frequently) it was a challenge that made me anxious to get the basic form in as fast as possible yet with some degree of accuracy. The process wasn’t helped by the fact that I wasn’t very speedy and only very seldom did the cat return to the same position – particularly the head and forelegs.
The next day I found a few tips on the internet on quick basic sketching of cats, so I tried out a few of them and found that when I attempted to capture his pose when eating, where had failed previously, the new technique made it much easier. The idea is to get the basic structure down on paper by first putting in the line of the spine, roughing in the oval shapes of the head, shoulders, belly and rump. I found this to be a good basic guide for filling in the broad forms with simple fast strokes.
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| Meg asleep - my sister' dog - pencil |
For the second fish drawing I propped up the plate at an angle so that it was more face on than the first fish drawing. It didn’t take as long, as I included only one fish and feeling more certain about the colours, I didn’t incorporate as many. However, the fish looked rather lost on the plate due to the plate looking more circular than the first, being almost face on and only one fish occupying the plate. As a result there was more empty space above and below. There is slightly more space below the fish and this was quite empty looking, so I added further tonal shading which I think helped to solve the problem. By this stage I was beginning to feel more at home with the medium and techniques.
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| No. 1 |
Media I enjoyed using most and reasons why:
Cat sketches and drawing Chalk and conte crayon were very conducive to heavy, light, thick or thin and soft textured lines and lines (mostly used for the texture of the fur) combined with shading in places, although I used the medium in a more linear fashion to describe the texture of the fur. It was quite easy to control and not smudging as easily as soft pastels. I liked the conte crayon enough to choose it for a larger drawing combined with Pierre Noire conte pencil, which was easier for finer detail such as eyes, nose etc. The white crayon was ideal to describe the white areas of fur on the tinted paper and I left areas of paper unshaded for the light grey/brown areas. It was quite pleasant to use this medium on ingres or fabriano paper, (I bought them in large separate sheets and I’m not sure which it was) as having a smooth yet uneven surface. I also used chalks and conte crayon on sugar paper for a few sketches but in comparison it produces quite an unpleasant scratchy sensation.
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| Fish drawing no.2 |
Amongst various media I experimented with when doing the sketches were: 6B graphite pencil - fine for both fine line and shading under or over.
Gel pen – the effect has an appealing linear and spontaneous look.
Both the graphite and gel pen are smooth and pleasant to handle.
Other interesting media and techniques I thought about trying since then, might be pen or pencil underneath pastel or conte crayon.
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| Fish drawing no 2 cropped and turned |
Fish Some techniques I used with the watercolour pencils and crayons were fascinating.
This medium has really grown on me, it is so versatile
. A wetted pencil tip smudged slightly when applied to the paper and intensified the colour. I found the very strong mark made, ideal for dark accents around the eye and tail area and patterning along the length of the body. It made an interesting textured wash which I used mostly on the plate and underlying background – applying loose open dry pencil shading then a damp wash over it retained many of its marks depending on how much pressure I applied in the dry shading and the wash. Applying the wetted pencil tip to a damp wash softened and spread the marks giving an undefined smudgy look. This seemed to work well for playing down the decoration around the edges of the plate, causing an out of focus effect, helping it to blend into the background, as opposed to more definition which I think would have resulted in a battle for attention with the detail of the fish, which I didn’t want. In the second drawing the yellow background was too dominant so I turned the angle of the fish, cropping it at the same time. I think the yellow still needs to be toned down even though only visible at two corners.
Where to go to draw more animals - places that will give me opportunities:
Local wildlife park - Doneraile – swans, herons and wildfowl, deer, cattle. Local fields and riverbanks – horses, cattle, sheep, birds.
Fota Wildlife Park – exotic species, African wild animals. Open farms – other farm animals. Donkey sanctuary.
Have I tried drawing a moving animal yet?
I tried sketching some horses in a field and swans on the river – from the car as the weather was cold, my sister’s dog and some cattle in the fields from the window of my dad’s house. This of course proved quite difficult with my limited experience, but I enjoyed the challenge and I feel eager to go out and do more, especially as spring is at last approaching.
Many months later I did some speedy sketches of a large group of horses in the field next to my dad's - just having time to get in a few lines, but I was quite pleased all the same. I have yet to upload them here.......
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