MATERIALS
• Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils – Walnut Brown – Cold Grey II – Burnt Ochre – Black – Caput Mortuum – Earth Green
• Prismacolour pencils – Light Umber – Warm Grey 30% – Warm Grey 50% – Cloud Blue – Peach Biege – Sand – Eggshell – Kelp Green
• Caran D’Ache LuminanceWhite
• Violet Grey
• Clairefontaine Pastel Mat
360gsm Dark Grey
• Pencil sharpener
• Kneadable eraser
• Gouache paint – White
• Long fine paintbrush
• Soft brush to sweep pencil crumbs off your work
• Tracing paper to put under your hand.
• Spray fixative
• Matt varnish
STEP ONE
For this drawing, I am using a Clairefontaine pastel mat in Dark Grey. It has a slight sanded texture to it, but it doesn’t chew your pencils up like some pastel mats can. Place your drawing on the pastel mat paper using a light colour. When using Black I use a light hand and a pastel pencil, as I can easily rub my lines out as I go.
STEP TWO
I always begin with the eyes when drawing animals. It is the key to great portraits, capturing the warmth and soul within the subject.
Using a White pencil, I immediately draw the highlights in the eye and work the colour in around that, as this is the lightest spot and I can then judge my darkest value (being Black), and work my tones in around it. To create the iris, I used Polychromos Burnt Orange and Prismacolour Light Umber. I then worked Pale and Dark Greys with White highlights in and around the eye to create the fur.
When doing fur, ensure your pencils are sharp and layer your colours in the direction the fur sits to achieve a realistic effect. This is where you should pay particular attention to your reference photo. I then toned down the bottom of the highlight in the eye, as you will see in the photo it is darker than the top. As I work, I am erasing my lines so they are not seen through the colour pencil.
STEP THREE
I continue to layer the fur, using multiple pencils to achieve the depth required. Quite often when you look closely at the pattern of fur, you will see that the light hair will sit just on top of a darker hair. This variation gives you the illusion of depth. Amelia has several colours in her fur, and I have exaggerated the tone slightly in my drawing to create a more dramatic effect.
STEP FOUR
Working into the rest of the body fur, the back of the cat is in shadow, so let some of the paper do the work for you by only adding colour were necessary. I have used Polychromos Warm Brown with Black to create the depth in the stripes and touches of Polychromos Cold Grey II to give me tone. I lay down my stokes of Cold Grey and go back over them with Prismacolour Light Umber. I pay careful attention to the way the fur falls at the top of the legs and chest, as the fur changes direction multiple times. I have used several colours here to achieve the warmth I am after: White, Prismacolour Eggshell, Sand and 50% Warm Grey, as well as the Caran D’Ache Violet Grey.
I continue to work these colours into the fur until I am happy with the effect.
STEP FIVE
To be able to pull the drawing altogether, I start working into the background. Most of this is out of focus so just shapes and patterns in the colours listed:
• Prismacolour Kelp Green
• Polychromos Earth Green
• Black and
• 50% Warm Grey.
STEP SIX
Keep layering and working colours into both the background and the fur until you get the tones and effect you are after.
On top of the White pencil I have worked in Prismacolour Cloud Blue, as this lifts the White and doesn’t make it look flat.
FINAL STEP
To complete the drawing, add some whiskers to the cat using a fine brush and White gouache. Be very light with your strokes so as not to make the whiskers too thick.
Spray the completed drawing with a coat of fixative, and once dry sign your work and spray with matt varnish to protect it.
Your work is done.
