What? No DRAWING WITH CAT!!??

That's right. I'm not going to apologize, either. I'm helping to pack up and move (again) so I have no time for a tutorial. Isn't that the saddest news ever? On the flip side, the next tutorial you receive ought to take place in South Lake Tahoe. Yeah, it's crazy. God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes I wish those ways weren't quite so far, but...

So, since I'm not lightening your day with a marvelous tutorial (excuse my small horn tooting there) I shall instead post THIS song, because I have been on a Disney RAMPAGE and am not sure why.

Besides, she has a KILLER voice. Would that I could sing so well! However, I guess I can only be uber talented in one thing at a time. Sorrows.

Oh well. Have a lovely Wednesday! Cheers! God bless! (Should I try using another exclamation point?)

Cat

Are you EXcited? Are you exCIted? Are you exciTED!!! I bet you are! You know what today is, right? Hurray! Another Drawing With Cat! Hoot hoot! Break out the beverages. Oh yeah, and the art supplies.

Today, all we're covering is Shadow. Oooh, doesn't that sound mysterious. Shaaaaaaaadow. Shadooooooooow. Yep, it'll be epic.

So get yourself:

• One HB pencil
• One basic Bic pen, or any cheap ink pen that draws kind of like a pencil
• One nice and bright work area

Because I'm SO NICE this way, I'm going to give you a picture that's already done! You just have to trace it, or print it out, and copy it exactly. How neato is that? Very neato, right?

Right.

So, here's the picture:

"Hang on," I hear people say. "Haven't I seen that picture before?"

"Yes," I say. Like the rest of youse all, I've been having a crazy busy week, and I wanted to try and get SOME NaNo done tonight! I cheated and used an old picture I had hanging around that I'd never completed. So, now we are going to complete it. Step by step. :) (The yellow paint smudge is courtesy of Samantha DeLallo)

So, copy the picture. It has been inked in already, and all the pencil guidelines erased. Now we're going to lay down the first layer of shadow.

 

First of all, you're going to visualize a light source streaming from your left (her right). It's going to hit her right side, thereby casting her left side in shadow. Very gently, you're going to shadow in a faint line where her nose curves, as another faint line under her chin. Shadow her neck, following the curve of her throat, and add a touch of shadow under her shirt where it lies against her skin and shoulder. Darken both seams under her arms where the fabric lies, and just barely tint the undersides of both arms. Draw a line of shadow under her shirt where it hits her ribs, down the side of her waist, around her hips and legs, and in the crease where her leg pulls up toward her stomach. Add the same shadow technique to her left foot. Her right leg and foot are going to be slightly more shadowed, but not too much.

This is when I darken her hair. I like to really darken the area right around her face, to create a nice contrast. It really makes her features "pop"... in a good way. :) With the hair, basically all you're going to do is colour some strands of it quite dark, and leave other areas untouched. It also creates a nice contrast. Now you're going to go over all your shadowing again, slightly darkening the portions you've already laid down, and extending them outward just a fraction. You're also going to add crease or fold marks. These are just simple lines drawn lightly into the "fabric", with the soft side of the lead to create a very soft, smudgy look.

For the final step, once more go over the shadowed portions, darkening out the previous layer and extending  the new edge out just a fraction more. Enhance the crease lines, where the fabric "folds" in on itself, and go over the outline of her face with pen, to re-emphasize the contours. Do the same with any areas you've shadowed so darkly that the pen lines seem to be fading. Draw in some scribbles under her foot to "ground" her.

And that's that. Shadowing is a little bit of a process, but not too bad. I hope this clarified some of the mysteries surrounding my tutorials when you were like, "Good Heavens! How did the picture go from HERE to THERE!!!!" Now when I say, SHADOW, you'll be able to say, all-knowingly, "Ah yes. Shadow!"

Until next time, take care! As always, drop suggestions in the comment box. I will probably do a tutorial on hands for the next one. But I'm open for suggestions. :)

God bless

Cat

Six-Sentence Saturday 11/10/2012

It is another Saturday. I feel like I turn around and trip over the next weekend. It's amazing how quickly they come, isn't it?

1.) It is incredibly windy outside.

2.) I'm thinking of that line from Peter Kagan and the Wind: "The wind is working now."

3.) My little niece just came in, stabbed my computer screen and said, "Look, Auntie Trina! There's a sight word! It's "the", see?"

4.) I feel so proud. (I taught her that. :)

5.) I just had the cool experience of seeing THIS picture:

...drawn in all it's glorious step-by-step-tutorial detail on my sister's site:

6.) I'm having a severe and overwhelming sense of "coolness." I ought to wear sunglasses.

That's all for now. What's up with you?

I'm taking suggestions for a new Wednesday pic, too, so drop some comments in the box!

Ta, and see youse all on Wednesday! God bless

Cat

A GIVEAWAY! OF MOMENTOUS PROPORTIONS!!

Well, maybe not quite THAT extreme, but...

*deep breath*

Dear friends and followers, even if you're both one and the same thing.

I hereby interrupt your week with a newscast, of a sort:

American Duchess is holding a really amazing giveaway over at her blog. Follow this link to participate! You will win these absolutely amazingly adorable shoes! (Or the equivalent, but I like the shoes.)

Aren't they cute? Aren't they adorable? Aren't they swoon worthy?

If you answered YES! YES! YES!, then head on over and participate. You never know... YOU might just be the lucky winner!

God bless.

Cat

Drawing With Cat 11/07/2012

Good morning, good day, good afternoon, good evening! That ought to take care of all the times during the day people pop over to say howdy. :)

Now that it's getting so cold and decidedly winterish outside, I thought I'd hit us all those non-winter people with a pang of nostalgia and "Oh please YES!" So, for this tutorial, we are going to draw a cute li'l girl at the beach!

Yes, you heard me. The beeeeeeeach! It will be lovely.

So now, grab you:

• One dullish HB or 2B pencil
• One automatic pencil
• One white artist eraser
• One basic Bic pen, or any cheap ink pen that leaves nice, pencil-ish lines
• One nicely illuminated work station

Okay, now that we've got all the necessaries out of the way, start with this Gollum-ish looking figure. (You do all know who Gollum is, right? If not, why haven't you read Lord of the Rings, or at least seen the movies yet?!?!?!) Draw it fairly small, with a head slightly down-turned. Draw a mostly straight back, gently bowing it out just a hair. Draw in her knees, so she looks like she's crouching a bit. Draw two mostly straight sticks for her arms.

Draw in her box dimensions. She's going to be a pretty little thing, so make these boxes kind of small. Visualize a thread running from her neck through the torso book, passing through the ball in her middle until it connects everything to her hip box. Once you've done that, mark in all the joint circles, drawing where her shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles join. Also draw a circle at her hip, where her leg attaches to her upper body. Last, draw in a small diagram of a foot. Draw this lightly, because it is NOT going to remain that way. It's for grounding purposes only.

Now, cover everything with a layer of skin. Draw a smooth, bowing line from her nearly invisible left shoulder all the way down her spine to where her leg attaches. Draw in her legs, making them fairly small and slender. Make her arms also fairly slender, as well as he neck. Mark in a very faint suggestion of her ear, and gently diagram the areas on her face where her eyes, nose, and mouth will go.

Now, using your artist eraser, get rid of most of the guidelines. Use the corner of your eraser when navigating through the small areas, such as her arms, neck, hands, and feet, so you don't erase too much of the pencil marks you want to keep. Draw in her nose, and darken the line where her mouth is. Diagram her hands. Refrain from hissing "my precioussssssss!" at this point.

Since it is a day at the beach, you actually have it really easy in the clothes department! Really, all you're going to do is draw a circle around her arm where the strap of her suit sits, and then you're going to draw a line around her thigh where the suit ends. Flesh out her fingers and toes, making them a bit more obvious. Enhance her ear just a tad, and draw in the rough outline of her hair. Since she's at the beach Mom doesn't want her hair to get too tangled, so little Beach Girl is wearing it in a braid. Draw some wiggly lines for waves.

Ink her in very carefully with your pen, being careful not to smudge around her face. Leave the waves in pencil. Don't ink this part in, or the "sand" she's crouching on. Once you've done that, completely erase all the pencil lines on her body.

Now, using the HB, or 2B pencil again, layer in the shadows. Very, very lightly touch up her face with a very faint bit of shadow. Add the same kind of shadowing to her neck, arms, and right leg. Now, pressing a little bit harder, heavily darken the area on her chest and stomach, gradually lightening as you work toward her back. Now, less heavily, shadow in her entire left leg, only leaving the top of her foot unshadowed. Once you've done that, colour in her hair, using alternating strokes of light and dark to create the contrast of highlights. Leave some areas completely white, to show where the sun is reflecting off her head. Use your pencil to draw more wavy lines on the wavelets ebbing and flowing toward the shore.

 

There you go! That is that! How did you do (gollum! gollum!)?

Well, kewl! If you've stopped by for a check, drop a suggestion in the comment box for the kind of tutorial you'd like to see next. Nothing TOO crazy, please. I'm not sure how great I'd be with cars or robots. :) Remember, I'm a fantasy artist, with some real life thrown in.

Stop by on Saturday for my next update. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this FOURTH INSTALMENT!!! of Drawing with the Grand and Glorious Cat, artist extraordinaire! (At least, that's what she wishes people would call her. ;)

God bless, and take care!

Cat

Six-Sentence Saturday 11/03/2012

Wow, it's already November. Time is just whisking away on little golden wings. If you ask me, "Why golden?" I truly have no answer for you. That word just sort of came out of nowhere and imprinted itself on my screen.

So, for my six sentences:

1.) There is a child on my floor crying in a non-stop, resonant, blaring-horn kind of way.

2.) Violence may be going down in a moment......

3.) Oh yay! She stopped! Violence has been put on hold.

4.) I found this circle of fifths diagram that fit in beautifully with the colour wheel for artists, and it is becoming an integral part of my story-in-revision. (Ooh, look. That anagram makes SIR, story-in-revision. "Sir, yes sir!) I did some edits on it, to make it more "me", and I'm happy with the overall product.

5.) I am also doing NaNo, along with three of my sisters.

6.) I'm also doing Operation Agent Ink from Ink in the Book blogspot. Wowzers!

That's all for my day. What's new with you? And stay tuned! Wednesday seems to come SO FAST, but we will be having another little drawing day. If you'd like, drop suggestions into the comment box, and I'll see what I can whip up.

God bless

Cat