cat in coloured pencil in moleskine A3 folio sketchbook

The resident tiger, coloured pencil in A3 folio moleskine

A drawing of the resident tiger, looking down at her, done when himself was hogging the tv because golf was on, . She refused to pose, saying she had better things to do, so I'm afraid it's done from a photograph.

details to show the scribbling that makes the fur and the 'drawing' back in with an electric eraser for the light over dark sections:




As usual there are some subtle tones that aren't being picked up, bleached out by the scanner. The viewpoint is looking down a little at her and she's sitting slewed with her head at an angle and her body slightly twisted - thinking of moving off.

more sketches of cats here

Comments

Lunar Hine said…
A lovely sketch, and useful for me to see the close-up of eraser work. Erasers were once 'banned' by an art teacher and I still feel a bit guilty or cheaty when I use them.
Perhaps on a similar note, I'm curious about why you say, 'I'm afraid it's done from a photograph'. Do you feel the final piece is of a lesser quality because it's from a photo? Visually or in some other way? Or is it about the experience, the work, of creating the piece? Would love to hear what other people think, too.
3:26 pm
vivien said…
Hi :>) well I have friends who regularly work from photographs and do wonderful work

- but I like working from life so much better. Not possible with my cats though to get a more finished piece unless they were drugged!.

I do think it's important to work from your own photo though - so the whole vision/concept/composition is your own creation. I have occasionally broken this self made rule but only occasionally.

I think you 'feel' textures and shapes better when working from life. Little distortions that creep in can add to an image - perspective is also different in a photo. Zoom lenses close up space, wide angles expand the apparent distance between objects. Photographs also don't show all the information, having black holes of shadow sometimes or burnt out white highlights where you would actually see colours, colours aren't picked up as well as the human eye can with all the subtle changes.

I just find them a bit unsatisfactory as a source of information - it's just a personal thing.

In some ways it's easier as the object has already been made 2 dimensional for you - but in other ways it's harder simply because you can't see the 3D!

I don't use an eraser much to rub out in correcting - because I work in a scribbly way, revisions and corrections remain and are just incorporated into the finished piece - sometimes they add a sense of movement.

If you look at the biro sketch of the road that I did today you'll see lots of corrections that aren't erased! biro isn't forgiving.
6:23 pm
Lunar Hine said…
Thanks Vivien. Interesting. I'll take a look at that biro sketch presently. Really appreciate hearing your thoughts.
9:22 am
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