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.

Rooster and Rose Page

Rooster and Rose Page

pen and watercolor rooster, pen and wash rose

Finished the page with yesterday's rooster with a life sketch of a silk rose I have handy. This is the second time I've drawn from it, like this rendering a bit better. Found my Stabilo watersoluble fine point colored pens while looking for someone else and had a go to see if they were still good. They are!

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!

Small Bird and Pen Sketch

Small Bird and Pen Sketch

7" square

A little self referential, but today's art I finished the page with the small bird from yesterday. Date is wrong under the signature, I actually sketched and painted this last night, then did the pen today. I penciled first carefully and then inked it with the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. Got a fairly smooth line and was very happy with how easily it fills large black areas. The photo faded out slightly but in person the blacks are very solid, not washed out at all.

Two Apples pastel on paper

Two Apples from Life

6" x 9" pastel on Moonstone Canson Mi-Tientes paper smooth side

I reorganized my 48 Color Conte to all fit neatly into an old 24 color Conte box, just broke the sticks in half and put two colors in each slot. One red piece is just a touch too long and sticks up, so I started something I'd use that red on. It went well! The apples are on a black refrigerator top but I livened that up with various dark colors and threw in a little reflected color still with the same red.

Gesture and Pencil Portrait of Ari Cat

Pencil Portrait and Pen Gesture of Ari Cat

9" x 12"

Still working and ruminating on a pastel landscape with good preliminaries that I plan to turn into a good demo on my Art Lessons blog. Ready to do that on the sanded paper, but haven't started that yet. Paper is chosen though and so are pastels.

Tomorrow's another clinic visit day - and that means doing water media! Maybe some charcoal and pastel sketching too, we'll wait and see. Till then, enjoy the first serious pencil drawing I've done in a long time.

Ari posed today with the sun shining in early afternoon brightness, all the lights on and for once, his beautiful eyes weren't heavily dilated. My room gets pretty dark and I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with his eyes. Nope. They dilate and retract just like any cat's, but he's fond of the low light and has no problem seeing anything even when it's too dark for me to see at all.

I meant to do pen and watercolor or just watercolor, but got going with an HB pencil and light shading turned into better shading. It was nice working that large for a change, the original is close to life size. My handsome model is now draped on the bed in a relaxed pose and I'll soon be joining him for the night. Sleep well, Ari Cat... your midnight crazies will probably wake me to laugh a little before I get back to sleep.

He already treated me to the Rowdy Cat Yell earlier and a thrilling pinball cat game all around the room ending in a triumphant trampoline tail chase on the bed. One of these times I need to start video on the first yell!

Ari Cat Sketches

Ari Cat sketches, some from life

Brush pen on paper, 9" x 12"

Today was a day for just spending time with my cat. Six or seven times he jumped up and took over my lap, sometimes sleeping till my legs went to sleep. He started out by armpitting me first thing when I woke up and spent the whole day snuggling on and off. He shoves his whole face into my armpit and head-bangs softly. It always makes me laugh, he gets so intense about it.

When he was little he'd run and put his head in my armpit whenever he got scared. If there was a storm or dogs barking or neighbors yelling or he had a bad dream, he'd run up and nuzzle my armpit and shiver. Then comfort himself chewing the armpit of my sweaters. He was a serious woolbiter, Siamese like to do that. Now he's a big grown up cat of 15 pounds, 15 years old. And he still likes to cuddle and just be my kitten again for a while.

So I sketched him again during some of his non-lap moments. He's the one cat I've had the most practice with and sometimes the trickiest with his markings.

More pastels tomorrow maybe.

Ari Cat Life Sketch in Derwent Graphitints

Ari Cat Life Sketch

Derwent Graphitint pencils on paper

I meant to do this as pencil and wash, but the only wash it really wanted was very delicately around his blue eyes.  I went very lghtly around them in Indigo and then just touched the brush to the blue line drawing it in, dissolving it without bleeding the black pupils into it. After that I couldn't distract with the wash on the rest of him, just let his pencil textures stand.

I like Derwent Graphitints for sketching, subtle color muted with graphite and as pencils they're very soft. Around 8B soft, good and strong for sketching. They've been favorites for a long, long time.

Look close and you can see several colors mingled in his fur and paws, while I used a deep green instead of black for the scribbled lines of the pillow and sheet. They were black but I changed them for purpose of the drawing. He likes laying on the bed in exactly my spot. They say cats don't like our scent but he always curls up in my place on the bed or in my laundry to get it on himself. Every cat needs to know he has me and of course I get paw-scented and face-scented all the time so cats I meet know I've got Ari for my painting buddy.

He just meowed for early supper so I'd better go feed the model!

Ari Cat life sketch and Irises from photo, 9" x 12"

Two more sketches, this time with Tombow brush pens on a wirebound sketchbook a friend gave me. It's not archival but the Tombow pens aren't lightfast, making it a good place to work things out for future paintings. Thinking of doing those two irises in pastels with the Holbeins on Mi-Tientes Touch.

Wisteria Trunk and Two Trees from Life

 Wisteria Trunk, 7" square

pen and watercolor in Stillman & Birn Zeta journal

Two Trees from Life

Derwent Graphitint, washed, same journal

I did sketch last week, the two trees were on the ride to my clinic appointment. Literally sketched while the van stopped, about five different trees went into the composite sketch. It's a common type of street tree in San Francisco that always fascinates me. Washed once I was in the waiting room. I love how Graphitints look, the combination of color and soft graphite is powerful and subtle.

On the same trip I sketched the Wisteria trunk from life, out back of the clinic garden in an area I usually go to smoke. That vine's fascinated me for years, it's thicker than my arm at its base and seems more like an extremely crooked tree than a vine. I put in the fence it grows on and the background later on Saturday after I started adding color. It took several days for me to decide on which watercolors to use, then once I'd painted the vine an leaves it looked awful. Everything was about mid-value against white. So I decided to throw in the loose background and fence and it balanced right. Went from one of my worst to one of my favorites that fast!

I'll be coming back to that vine in future. It's blooming now so I might tackle its flowers sometime.

Jonquil and Plein Air Trees

 Jonquil 

8" x 10" pastel on brown sketch paper

Last Wednesday was my clinic visit and the elevator in my building still hasn't been fixed. So I called in to Paratransit and set my pickup time an hour late to have time for sketching. The stairs wiped me out, but the shot invigorated me and the weather was good. So I went out into the garden. The previous visit a whole bed of jonquils blazed bright lemon yellow in the back plus a few scattered around in other beds. This time there were three plants left. 

Two were in extremely awkward places that I had to step off the path and weave between beds of flowers just to get photos. That was difficult and strenuous. I lost a couple of pocket contents just getting photos of those and the micro lilacs from the strangest lilac bush I've ever seen - litle spikes maybe 3" long and tiny 1/8" florets in deep blue-violet. Wonderful scent though and I got a series of photos of those. I wore myself out on plant photography and then discovered even the easiest jonquil to reach still meant sitting on hte grass looking down at it, or lay down and get a photo at its level. I got down for the photo.

Then went out back by the patient drop-off and pickup spot, got some good azalea photos and sketched my jonquil from the best photo. I was not happy with the sketch, thought it was awful, covered the pad and put it away. Read a little just resting. Then got the sketch urge again and decided to do the big palm tree beyond the parking lot that I've never gotten a good photo of close enough for detail, plus the deciduous tree that overlapped it. The bases were actually blocked by some shorter bushes and plantings, but once I'd sketched them they floated. I picked up some green and added a harmonic line a little like those in Chinese paintings to make the sketches look better.

Trees study from life

Winsor & Newton Watercolour Markers on Bockingford paper

Why I don't like this sketch is that the extra color I picked up blurred and created unwanted blossoms and bare patches at random in the foliage of both. It's not totally a success. But not totally a failure either. It is what it is - a tree study from life. I remember the trees better for sketching this. Where it's not literal I did get the basic shapes and identities and the feel of them.

I could probably have reworked and layered this, but that would change it a lot and it might come out overworked if I did. So I treated it as a study and after I finished the jonquil this afternoon, decided to post both. It can stand as what it is. Not every sketch has to be an inspired, perfect painting!

As for the pastel jonquil, I finished without looking back at the photo. I had enough sketch to go by and just strengthened it. Not my best but lots better than it looked unfinished. Again, a study, a sketch, not a fine painting on sanded paper. This is what that brown Bee Recycled Rough Sketch paper is for!

I started it with Cretacolor Pastels Carre' (hard pastels 36 colors) and finished with 60 Rembrandt half sticks, soft pastels at the "medium" range of softness. Good enough to go on the sketch wall!

Forget perfectionism, just have fun!