I've slowed down with drawing over the last week, because I'm trying to organise my wedding, which is this coming May (even though I want to draw!). Anyway, I've been working on this study of a tabby cat. I'm trying to get some good fur detail and thought I would post this as a WIP - looking for feedback and pointers, as this is my first cat pic in this much detail. I'm really nervous about the ears and how to handle the pale hairs against the pale pink background (see source photo) - any pointers?

Thanks,

Becky.

- Melissa (aka: Honey Bee)

Tony P.

I thought I might have to try the 'erasing method' on the ears - that's my concern - not having a stiff enough eraser:o ! I did try cutting mine up like Matti, but it didn't want to know - it was like trying to rub out with a particularly uncooperative ribbon!

Good news is I've made progress on the wedding invitations but not on the cat

To answer The Duke's question about the eyes, the lightest part of the iris is one layer thick (except for a couple of places where I lifted graphite with blu-tac) and the dark area around the perimeter of the retina (nice words!) are probably about four layes thick (laid on in lines radiating out from the retina). To get the reflections in the eyes, I had drawn their outlines very lightly before filling in the eyes. Once the eye was mostly done, I softened the edges with a stump (particularly trying to bring the dark of the retina up to make it look like it was under the reflection). The right eye took about an hour to draw - this is a detail from the drawing which is on A4 paper. (All blending done with stump).

Are ya'll asleep yet?!

In the meantime, I'll post you this to keep you interested(!?) - it's a small picture of my fiance Rich, and myself (drew it for his nan's 90th birthday - it's lost some detail on scan, but nevermind...).

Take care and I'll update the cat when I can

Quote ...I'm really nervous about the ears and how to handle the pale hairs against the pale pink background (see source photo) - any pointers?

Beautiful eyes, Becky! In fact they're so lovely that I hate to tell you that you've rotated one of them. The pupils of cats eyes aren't upright but are slanted inwards towards each other at the top - if you look at the cat's right eye in the source photo you'll see that the top points more to our right - you have it more upright.

Looking at the negative drawing above the eye, I don't think you'll have any trouble with the ear. But this may help.... Personally I wouldn't want to use an eraser at all, I'd just draw the ear behind the hairs leaving them white - finally I would add a little tone to shape them but I wouldn't try to cut them in. Did you incise the whiskers above the eye? Or draw around them? In my drawing below (it's a bit coarse because it was designed to be printed onto a cat food bag) you'll see that I have dark hairs in the ear, not white, but I think the white above the eye might help you understand what I'm rambling on about. Apart from the incised whiskers, this is all negative drawing - drawing always from dark back into the white. You'll see that I've used the highlight down the edge of the ear to throw the dark hairs forward. You can do the same but in reverse. You have a rib of cartilage running up your ear - if you imagine (or lightly outline) your white hairs and then draw this rib around them, those white hairs will pop forward - the eye will follow the rib and read the white hairs that cross it as being on top. And by steadily increasing the depth of tone as you go lower (as in the source) you will not only suggest the depth of the ear, you will also push those white hairs even further forward. I suggest you initially treat the white hairs as one big clump then split it up internally afterwards.

If you must erase then get hold of one these Staedtler stick erasers (I use the top one but I don't think they are still avaliable). These sticks fit a standard pencil sharpener and can be sharpened to a fine point, Or use a sharp knife to cut a chisel point on the end. I no longer use this technique but I used it often at one time.

MIKE

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