Cats, cats, cats!

When I was in my teens and twenties I used to draw in the evenings after work and never showed my work to anyone and I never met any other artists. It was a bit of a disappointment when I did find pencil artists on the Internet and found my style was pretty common! Because of that, there are certain subjects I tend to avoid like celebrities and pets. Now and again I'm tempted by a celebrity (though I think it's safe to say I'll never do Angelina Jolie!) but I never drew animals. That is until a couple of months ago when I did the Siamese sketch I mentioned earlier. I've always loved cats, the more temperamental or just plain mental, the better. So why not? Does it really matter? I used to be a real snob about the books I read too until one time in the eighties I read a work colleague's Jilly Cooper novel. I realised how silly it is to stop yourself from just having fun!





















I've posted these in the order they were drawn. They seem to have got more detailed as I went along. These two above are sisters. They were my Mum's next door neighbours cats before they defected over the wall. They are both very overweight so I guess the food was better. Mum never gave them names so they are just Big Cat and Little Cat (although Little Cat is now Big Little Cat!)

















Next came Max, a part time visitor but I hear he has now moved in permanently. He used to live few doors away. Word must be getting around!



















Boo is a cousin's cat, breed unknown but I think he could be a Burmilla.





















Another cousin's cat, Kim, drawn from a very old photo taken in 1982. The photo wasn't very clear and the eyes were half shut so I used a lot of other references to get the direction of the fur and the anatomy correct. This was the last cat drawing and I'm still wondering whether it needs some background or just some more definition.