drawing cats in bed

I've never really considered myself to be very good at drawing.  I can do all sorts of other artistic things, but I feel like I'm missing something crucial when it comes to drawing.  A couple years ago when I was inspired to attempt more art, I started doing some sketches.  Looking back through my sketchbook I'm a bit surprised and impressed with some of what I've done.  I remember how hard it was to sit down and draw.  It was the starting that gave me the most trouble.  Once I was going it was ok, but convincing myself to begin was a challenge.  I didn't keep it up for very long before other things got in the way.  Fast forward to now.  I've been trying all sorts of creative endeavors but one thing that I haven't done much of is draw.  I sketch out ideas for sewing projects, but not much else.  Again, it's the starting that gives me trouble.  In the back of my mind, though, I keep thinking that I need to do more drawing.  I know that practicing that skill will help me in all other creative areas.  Definitely painting.  In an effort to help me get started, one of the books I got with a recent Amazon order (almost entirely free with reward points!) is Drawing Lab by Carla Sonheim.

(Actually, all of the books I got are arty books.  Guess I needed a jolt of inspiration).

It took a few days before I was "ready" to do the first exercise.  (See what I mean about the starting?).  The assignment was to draw cats in bed.  Not cats who are in bed, but draw while sitting or lying on a bed.  How fun, I thought.  In reality it turned out to be very hard!

 

I'd hoped that I'd have a real live model, but Dovey was busy doing other things.  I did have a couple photos of my kitties from when they were small and I tried working from them, but I don't think they helped very much.

 

Cats are hard to draw.  At least for me they proved to be hard to draw.  Instead of getting discouraged I just kept drawing more and more cats.  Looking back I see there are a couple sketches that don't look too bad.  As I was drawing, though, I kept laughing at my strange-looking kitties and also laughed at what Carla Sonheim writes about how you might not like all of the cats you draw and that you have to draw a lot of cats before to get the one good one.  Well, yep, that is certainly true.  I also laughed because I tried drawing with my left hand (as suggested to get loosened up).  The funny thing?  That many of my right handed drawings looked no better (or even worse) than the left handed ones.  Ah, well, you have to start somewhere.

One more thing that I hope will brighten your day.  I saw this mentioned on the Spoonfulzine blog.





Now I'll be dreaming of floating away with a bouquet of balloons.