Drawing a Cats Head

Drawing a Cats Head:

In tackling the cats head, and I'm not talking face here. As I want you to concentrate on the head features lone. Once you have the head proportions right; then everything else will follow.

Now there are many different faces in the cat world, like the general face of the average cat, which I have concentrated on here. Yet you have the flatter proportions of some breeds to the sharp faced oriental and Egyptian breed of cats.

As long as you remember that the basic shape of the overall cat is relatively the same, then; and only then, can you change the building blocks of the head to whatever breed of cat you want to do at the time.

Drawing a Cats Head ~ Front Profile

Lets have a look at the front head of the cat and these different sketches of lines I have drawn over our our subjects here. I have also drawn some lines in a different color so that I can pin-point to you, the differences.

The blue lines here are the basic form of the front shape of the cats head. When drawing a cast head, you need to stop thinking in circles and squares and get a bit more flexible. Lets face it, have you ever seen a true living thing with a perfect circle as a head? no, I don't think so.

Just as there isn't any straight lines in nature, so it is with drawing up your subject on paper, I want you to get used to this idea, so that you don't have to reshape true circles later.

Were not trying to go for a whole oval shape to depict the front of the cat here, as the cats face can be sectioned into plains. That's right; plains.  It's just another way of dividing, or you could say sect ionizing your surfaces so that it make a whole lot more sense to you.

The world of surfaces in intricate form can overwhelm you. And we have been brought up to visually see surfaces all together, not knowing where one surface distinctly goes on to blend itself to another. We see all surfaces in one to distinguish what we are looking at. So you could imagine that we are not taking in all the detail at hand.

This can be proved if I gave you the chance to get a piece of paper and ask you to draw the cats face from memory. Try this if you like, and see what you come up with. I will guarantee you will find that you will struggle, and that what you draw will not be a precise rendering of the true cat subject.

"An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision."~
James McNeill Whistler

Ok,when drawing a cats head, the blue lines also show the oval direction of where the cats flatter top part of the head will be. Followed by the ridge where the forehead follows downwards joining with the nose.

The red lines will give you a good spacing for proportion of where the eyes will sit, and follow these lines down to also draw in the chin. Which you will find, will take on its own correct proportion.

Drawing a Cats Head ~ Side Profile

When drawing the cats head, the side head profile of the cat more or less easier than the front. Why? when you think about it. You are dealing with trying to create the illusion of raising up surfaces on a flat surface. To make it tangible to your audience to get them to believe that your subject is realistic.

In a side profile you are drawing clear outlines when drawing a cats head, and not trying to create one plain on top of another.

The cats head again, does not need a full circle, because in the long run, you will only need to do more rubbing out.

Draw the yellow lines in to give you a guide to the flow of the cats upper head. Don't draw in the ears yet, as I  would rather you didn't at this stage. I know it is tempting to put the ears in straight away.

But it is a shortcut; and in some ways cutting corners. Always get the basic shape of the cat firstly, and then draw in the fleshy parts afterwards.  This way you avoid mistakes later on.

The blue lines show raw flat plains showing the rises in the cats face, from one plain to another. In this way, you have emphasized the

And also gives you more of an awareness of just how intricate these features are. Rememberer to keep a loose wrist when drawing in these lines. Don't hold the pencil too low, keep your hand in the middle of the pencil. Almost with  flamboyancy, don't try to get your lines too straight, as this will slow down you line drawing, and also tend to make the lines thicker. Resulting in pressure groves on your surface that your eraser wont get out.