Last summer, during my painting vacation, I made some reference pictures of one of the resident cats. The other cat was a mostly hiding, but this elderly lady enjoyed all the attention our group of painters gave her. She is sixteen years old, which makes her an old lady.
The first evening, while we were having a late supper, she also found herself something to eat and I was able to make a picture of her holding the unfortunate mouse. It was getting really dark, so the background lost all detail, only the path she is on has some highlights. I think my phone used the flash while making this picture, the cat and mouse are very well visible, so the picture is a good reference.
It took some time before I had gathered the courage to make a drawing using my reference picture, but here it is.
For this drawing I selected a light grey tinted cardboard and I have used my watercolour pencils (again only as pencils, on this type of paper it is not wise to use water) for the drawing. The cat is a calico, so I used my black, white and some other pencils for the cat and its prey and by applying at least three layers of colour I had them stand out as my subject.
The path and the background are only suggested and light grey of the paper is part that. I have added some highlights on the path and darkened what is behind the cat (a hedge, but without details because of the darkness).
The result is maybe even better than I hoped for - I really am improving my cat-drawing skills.
The information about the materials I have used, the size of this drawing and its availability can all be found in my Tumblr blog.
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