Cats from Life with Serval Zouletta

Cats from Life Page

Pentel Brush Pen and Watercolor on Moleskine 

There they are, two Ari cat life studies in pen and watercolor, five Zouletta Serval studies in pen and watercolor. I used Sepia, Quinacridone Burnt Orange (to warm the mix in Ari's fur), and Payne's Grey for serval paws and Ari cat's background. 

Zouletta was much more lively tonight at Big Cat Hospital. The folks at Big Cat Rescue put a camera in the cage whenever one of the big cats is in for treatment, so volunteers can watch to see if they're recovering okay. There's a number to call in a cat emergency, this is entertainment but also volunteering  to check on sick, often endangered big cats. 

I first got into it with Skippy the Bobcat, who had a lot of Internet fame. I posted a painting of him on Facebook an raffled it to support BCR, wound up carrying 15 months of taking care of a bobcat with that painting so feel very good about it.

Now the cat in the infirmary is Zouletta, who ate an acorn. They had to give her surgery to get it out of her small intestine. She's doing better tonight, less lethargic, less miserable looking. She gets up and moves, turns around, washes herself and the Cone of Shame is gone. I don't know if she's had a bowel movement yet but she's definitely recovering well and if she hasn't, I think she will soon. She's on the mend.

Beautiful Zouletta turned showing her face several times so I managed to get her profile, she moved too much for a full face view. Still, that's not bad for big cat studies from a live, restless big cat! I'll bet when I get to visit the Arkansas big cat rescue place, I'll find at least some of them awake and repeating poses. Good practice for when I make that trip!

Sleep well, Zouletta!

I'm also maknig progress on my novel, neck and neck with the deadline. Need to finsh by midnight tomorrow night and have only 3,606 to go. So I've got a good chance of getting it done. Wrote 4k today along with serval sketching. So that rocks. Hope I can get this last sprint in!

Ari Cat from Life

Ari Cat from Life

8" square Tombow grays on sketchbook

I'll probably add more cat gestures to this page or something, he moved before I could get his body in. This is a typical life pose. He turned his head twice looking to the side and I had to wait for him to look back, then got up and walked away to eat. After all I was only drawing him, not offering yogurt or reaching to pet him. He's not always that keen on posing!

But he will sometimes come back to a pose again and again. I don't think he really minds it either, just knows I need to learn to draw fast!

Cat, bird and botanical sketches

Ari Cat from Life, Two Views

Pen and watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor journal

Early today before I went out, I saw Ari looking at the wall and sketched him rapidly with the nearest pen, a Pigma Micron. He was so beautiful and his tail went at a lovely angle. Then later I sketched him again in another pose with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, gave it plenty of time to dry and watercolored with my Lukas 1862 pans set of 48. Combining Sepia and Payne's Grey gave me the smoky middle-dark tones of his tail and back perfectly, his tail is grayer and less brown than his back and his feet have touches of that coolness.

Then I went out on my usual every other Wednesday appointment and got done fast, started playing with the pocket brush pen again in the waiting room using my own photo of a pigeon.

Pigeon in Brush Pen and Derwent Graphitints

I made up the mysterious cool grey of his feathers by using Aubergine violet and a cool blue-green together, then added Dark Indigo in the lower shadows and Cloud Grey over the mix on his back. Legs are Cool Brown, shadow is Cloud Grey, then washed and was very happy with the effect. The bird had an odd little shape of white at the base of his tail that I reserved to keep in. Fun little project. I also got new pigeon photos yesterday on Voting Day along with possibly a seagull among them, won't know till I sort the pictures. 

Botanical sketches in Derwent Graphitints

Finally dispensed with pen work when I noticed some dried leaves on the ground and sketched them. By then I was out in the garden and just intrigued by the dead leaves, rearranged them to my liking. Over where I waited for the van, one lone white flower appealed to me so did that in Graphitints too, using my water brush to pick up some color off a yellow Derwent Art Bar for the bright center of the flower over the initial Chestnut rendering. 

Happy with all these pages, it's a good day when I can journal more than one page and not hate any of the drawings. If you do any art journaling, I'm sure you know the feeling!

Sketches of Ari Cat and Tree Scene

Eleven Dots 1

Abstract Art Exercise in red and black pen on paper.

Yesterday I caught up for the day before by doing an abstract art exercise from an ebook I downloaded. It looked fun and came out surprisingly well, though completing it needed repeating it in a second color. Fun to just get creative without worrying about what it is.

Eleven Dots 2

Tombow pen on sketch paper

Did the exercise again this time playing differently with the line and forms created by the line. Resulted in a completely different abstract pattern that also worked. It surprised me how well this works as a starting point, doing it twice generated such completely different results.

Then I sketched my cat from life but didn't snap a photo or post it anywhere, was sort of doing ahead for today in case I was tired. Today I finished that page with another tree demo - this time a contour drawing to show more clearly that trees thicken toward the base and narrow toward the tips, always branching smaller and smaller without bulges. Unless the tree has a tumor like an oak gall or something, but those have a particular look and aren't an upside down gradual swelling. I threw in a couple of landscape elements and more roots this time because the same principle applies to tree roots except sometimes they dive into the ground and come up again. Played with very obvious perspective diminishing cloud sizes as they moved toward the horizon and dong the waves by the sea very small to show how high the crag the tree's on is.

Worked rater well, I think. Might rearrange it a little but it's a cool design. I'm starting to just make things up and I like that.

Tree Scene and Ari Cat Page

Tombow pen on 8 1/2" x 11" sketch paper.

Cat and Big Cat Sketches

Ari Cat from life and Ocelot face

Tombow dual tip pens on sketch paper 

Tiger skull and snarling face

black Tombow dual tip pen on sketch paper.

Caught up with yesterday's art, actually did four sketches today but not counting ahead. Three are exercises from a book: "How to Draw Animals" series by Franklin Watts UK, volume "Tigers and Other Big Cats." 

The snarling tiger was drawn from an interesting half and half example with a tiger's resting face and snarling face. I tried to mirror the snarling side just by hand, with some success but not well enough to satisfy me. That was surprisingly hard. I'm used to getting good symmetry on things like vases that demand it, but this time I really had a hard time mirroring the expression - and in my mind was also slightly disappointed in the drawing I copied, especially the nose expression and forehead wrinkling that were very simplified. No markings on the tiger in the example either, so I had to add a couple of oversimplified stripes.

Eh, they're just sketches off a book. Some days are about taking it easy and going back to basics - but it's easier to do big cats from a good reference than someone else's drawing! Not so used to copying any more!