Drawing CatsDrawing Cats in Art is something many of us cat lovers would love to do. We see all these lovely portrayals of the cat and wish we could do the same. Have a look and study this straight forward guide, who knows, you might find that you can drew cats too.
Sketching CatsHave you ever noticed how often cats are pictured sleeping? The only way they will be still for long enough to be drawn! A detailed drawing of a cat is best done from photographs, when you have plenty of time to observe the details. Cats are wonderful subjects to sketch, with their quick graceful movements equally suited to brisk energetic handling or to smooth, elegant line. To capture your cat in action, you'll need a quick eye and quicker hand. A felt-tip black artist's pen, such as used in this drawing at right, is ideal.
Sketching the Main Shapes With line drawing, the trick is to know what to put in and what to leave out. Because you have limited time, you must be bold and confident, and not worry too much about detail. Begin by sketching in the main forms. These can change dramatically with a cat, due to their great flexibility. Rough in the oval of the ribcage/belly area, the shoulders, rump and head. Observe the cat in various poses, mentally simplifying the shapes - curling in a ball, stretching, arching. Note that the spine runs from the back of the neck to the tip of the tail, and while very flexible, won't form a sharp bend - this is a useful line to observe in sketching, helping you align the forms of the body. The tail is an important means of expression for the cat, and aids in balancing, so should always be included in the sketch where possible.
Drawing the Head
and Ears Take a look at the cat's head. Imagine a straight line down the center of the nose, and another line going across the top of the eyes. If the cat is looking straight at you, these two lines will form a right-angle. This angle will change depending on the position of the head. Compare the angle these lines make on your model with your drawing. This will help ensure the eyes look straight. The ears are three-dimensional, almost pyramid shapes - not flat triangles. Like the tail, ears are very expressive and can tell us a great deal about the cat's frame of mind. When drawing whiskers and hairs, keep the lines quick and light, to avoid them looking like bits of string.
When sketching with line, you can use directional marks to bring out the roundness of form or to give texture and movement, but generally it is best to ignore the cat's markings, as lines drawn to indicate a change in color can be confusing to the eye. Short, quick marks can be useful to indicate hair, but for a shorthair cat, a long sinuous line is generally preferable, to indicate the smooth graceful line of the cat's musculature. ~Helen South
Draw a Cat in Graphite PencilWhat You Will Need: Good quality drawing paper (I used lightweight hot pressed watercolor paper), a range of pencils (F, B, 2B, 4B, 6B), paper stump, eraser, blu-tack (removable poster adhesive) or kneadable eraser. Select your Photograph. Select a photograph that is well-lit, with good visible fur texture and no areas that are hard to see - you don't want to have to guess what shape the ear should be - and a good pose. Elongated or awkward poses are hard to make into a convincing drawing, especially from a photograph. Ideally, the picture should be taken at cat's eye-level.
Scan and print, or photocopy your photo (or use tracing paper to make a preliminary tracing), then lightly trace the key points of your image. Take particular care with the ears, eyes and whiskers, and draw as lightly as possible, especially when the outlined area will be white.
Start shading the darkest areas of the drawing. Take your time when working towards detailed areas. Remember that you aren't drawing lines to show detail, but putting AREAS of light or dark tone in the same place that they are on the photograph.
Using a B pencil, begin shading the mid-toned areas. Use a blending stump instead of your fingers to carefully smudge over and even out the shading. Where you have light fur against dark, use short strokes going against the direction of fur growth, leaving tiny spaces between the pencil marks for the light fur.
Because there are large, dark areas, at this point some shading is boldly added to the cat's body and background. A fair bit of time is taken to define the whiskers, and carefully observe the shapes of the marks on the face. A little more shading is added to the eye, taking care to preserve the paper white
Close observation and patience are needed to carefully add the details of facial features and fur, such as dark whisker spots, the nose and the mouth. In this example, the cat's mouth is very subtle, drawn by short upward strokes, as the top lip is defined only by white hairs and the shadow on the lower jaw. Note the smooth shading that is drawn as a base for the darker fur texture that will be added next.
This example shows the short pencil marks, narrowing as the pencil is lifted towards the end of the mark to give a fur texture. Where the fur is very short and thick, very short marks and dots can be used to build up the texture.
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