Well actually… “neko” means “cat” in Japanese, which is what the characters mean in the middle of the painting. Still following Juliette Crane‘s Whimsical Animals on-line classes, and I’m loving it! This next unit is Pastel + Charcoal Drawings in which we focus on introducing details and softness to out animals. Naturally, I went for cats! Just felt like fill up the page from my Strathmore’s Visual Journal for Mixed Media and sketched away. Cats in all shapes and forms, poses and expressions. What a great practice it was to sketch cats!
We first begin with charcoal. A combination of vine and block charcoal was sketched with here, but vine is wonderful for creating light shades and shadows. Furthermore, it is easier to erase mistakes. Charcoal blocks are ideal for outlines, and charcoal pencils are perfect for details. Then these cats were colored in with block pastels mainly in brown (burnt sienna), pink and white. I just went for the cheaper version by Van Gogh from Dutch art supplier Talens, and the effects were still pleasing. Loving how it all turned out!
A great practice this was with dry media and sketching cats. And our feline friends turned out so cute and adorable! This was also a wonderful way to loosen up and prepare before embarking in a more detailed and “intensive” painting. Being so chilled during sketching and happy with how this all turned out, I may definitely like to do a similar session involving other subjects such as flowers, another animal and of course Little One!
My Kawaii Quarter 