Hi guys,

I see some other artists here who draw in realism which seems to fascinate some folks ... I know it did me when I first started. I tend to get a lot of comments about how much my stuff looks like a photo and people wonder how it's done. No secret .. just pay very close attention to detail. But seeing a finished drawing doesn't really help much so I thought I would share the journey of 1 drawing from start to finish. I am on the 3rd drawing of a 3 cat commission and this reference photo is about the worst I've ever seen.



Before I begin, I would not suggest anyone without a great deal of experience should ever attempt a commission from such a photo. I have a few others of this cat but none of them are any better. Unfortunately the cat is no longer with us so taking my own photos is not an option. The problem with a commission based on such a photo is that the client doesn't see the problems - they see the cat as they remember it and expect me to capture the personality and render a drawing resembling a good photo. My work is cut out for me on this one! The drawing is 7x7" on Mellotex in graphite. Mellotex is not available for some reason on this side of the Atlantic though it's readily available in the UK. I order mine from Mike Sibley and have it shipped here. I've tried many different papers and find Mellotex to be an amazing product. It is very smooth, quite white but it takes blacks very nicely. In the past I've used Strathmore Bristol Plate which is even a bit smoother, it erases fabulously, but blacks are hard to get as it's so smooth so I would definitely not recommend it for beginners. I also like Strathmore Bristol Smooth Series 300 for animals but it's not as nice as the Mellotex IMO.

I should mention that I do not use construction lines very much - a little, of course, but I find one place to start and work outward from there. Since I'm right handed I find working on the left side of the paper easiest to avoid smudging. I also use a piece of paper under my hand to help avoid that and move the drawing around to different angles as needed while I work. In this case I drew the outline of the left side ear as best I could (I can't see the edges so it's a guess at best). Then I began to sculpt the ear. Fortunately this cat has interesting markings in her ear which helped a good deal. The ear is too thin just now, but being that it is a black cat, erasing a mistake is VERY problematical. In fact, I started this particular drawing once before a month or so ago and made the face a bit too wide on the left side but was unable to cut it back without leaving a lot of graphite ghosts so I trashed the drawing. This time I am going to err on the side of too small and fill it in as necessary once I've got more of the face in place.

Once I had the ear drawn, I rolled my kneaded eraser into a ball and rolled it over the ear to remove most of the graphite already in place. Then I began to tone it again with a 4H. I find that smooth areas don't look quite right the first time so removing the graphite and doing it again seems to smooth things out. This is probably because the graphite left there lubricates things and the second application goes on smoother. I used a 2B to do the dark markings there and crept up on the edges a little better. The darks were put in with a VERY light motion - almost like just kissing the paper - so it took a number of layers to build it up. My kneaded eraser gets a lot of use in balancing values as well if I should get something a bit too dark. I also use a dabbing motion with the pencil to soften edges. I almost never blend with anything but graphite. Once the markings were about right I used the edge of a sharpened stick eraser to lift ear hairs. This method leaves a LOT of little eraser debris so my kneaded eraser was used to carefully lift the debris - this is a VERY important step. If you do not remove this debris, your pencil will pick it up and roll it into a little graphite coated ball which will adhere to the paper and leave a black dot. Once this has adhered to the paper it is VERY hard to remove - sometimes impossible. Then the hairs were feathered into the darker areas and given slight shadows using a 4H pencil. I will need to go back and soften some of the stuff in that ear - cats have ridges in their ears in various shapes that cast shadows - these shadows are not as dark as I have them and there is also a highlight above that ridge which I will add at the same time.

Once that was done reasonably well, I worked my way down the forehead to the eye. This was done mostly using dark tone with a 2B but not grinding the graphite into the paper - more of a dull tip so it was generic dark tone. The eye was mostly a guess based on some shadows in the photo to show the pupil and catchlight. The pupil was done with a sharp 4B leaving the catchlight pure paper ... there is also a dull reflection under that which was done with an F. The rest of the eye was done with a 4H for generic tone in a sort of wagon wheel fashion. Then I erased it with my kneaded eraser again and did it once more. I will yet go back with my 4H and add some interest but I'll probably wait till the other eye is drawn so I can balance them. I also gave a bit of a shadow under the lid to put the eye in better context.

From there I worked my way out to the side of the head although I absolutely cannot make out specifically where that is on the reference .. so I guessed and stopped a little short (I hope). Then I used my stick eraser again to highlight individual hairs on the forehead, cleaned up the debris and feathered the hairs into the surrounding mass with my 4H again. Since I didn't know where the edge of the face was and the jawline isn't visible very well either, I saw the cheek has a dark shadow winding around and up to the nose. This seemed like the best way to approach it so I felt my way along. I was also able to get pretty close to the edge of the nose on the left side moving down from the eye. Once that was done I toned it thoroughly with 4H and used my stick eraser to lift hairs over the entire area several times. This removed most of the 4H but left a basic texture. I will redo this when I get the mouth and jawline figured out. I was also careful to lift hairs over the existing black area. I've drawn quite a few cats in the last year so I'm counting on my knowledge of how the hairs lie to make up a reasonable facsimile of facial hair since only the basic masses are visible in the reference.

At this point I've been drawing for about 4 or so hours and ran out of time so here's where it stands. The trick to doing realistic drawing is to go slowly, take you time and train your eye to really see what's there. See a texture and think to yourself how you can duplicate that. What is it about it that makes you think of fur, or hair, or wool or whatever the texture is ... then try to draw it that way. Also notice that the only area on the drawn part that is white paper is the catchlight in the eye. Everything else has between 4-10 layers covering all the paper.



I hope this topic will be of some interest to a few of you.

[edit] - There are a few construction lines on the left side jaw where I originally thought the jaw would be .. it's wrong and will have to be removed. Doing it lightly with a scribbling motion with a 4H pencil doesn't leave much graphite behind so erasing is easy.

Ken

Thanks Ken, this is a subject near and dear to me.. I look forward to seeing your drawing progress!

I hope there is something here of interest to a few people.

This is fascinating. Thanks for letting us see how you produce your wonderful work.

Thank you, Ken. This is highly informative.

Dave

Hi Ken,

Thanks for sharing. I'm sure this thread will be followed by quite a few members.

I was wondering if you had considered using another black and white cat photo? I found this one on the net (B&W Cat). Like you said you can work out the markings and having references of the same type of cat could be useful for the eyes, nose, whiskers and things like that.

I wish you great success for the project.

Thanks Dave ... I hope it will be helpful.

Thanks RJ. Actually I had tried this one a short time ago and found that using other cat photos was some help - especially in the nose area since I can't really see much there. I found another photo of a black cat at roughly the same angle. So I trimmed back to his nose and superimposed it on the reference which helped a lot ... I'll explain that little process as I get to it.

Have you ever seen a worse reference to work from? Some of us have all the luck ...

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to see the progress on this wip.

Thanks Ken, This is great. I have two cats that I want to draw, and one is black and white. She looks alot like the cat you are working on. I was just reading about how to do black fur on the forum to prepare myself to draw her portrait, so what you have posted is really going to help. I especially struggle with getting the eyes in my drawings to look real. I hope to get started and put it in the gallery when I'm done. Thanks again, Carol

Yeah that's one of the worst I've seen. If it were anything else but an animal, I wouldn't have even tried it. But at the end of the day, a cat's a cat. I remember once when our family cat got lost on a road trip and my uncle went looking for it armed with a photo. Well to make a long story short he came back with the wrong cat.

Hi Carol ... cat eyes are not very unique to each cat .. they're pretty much the same. So you can find a photo of most any cat that has clearly focused eyes and just copy them. The tricky thing is that the eyes are surrounded by a rather black shape much like a line. There are no true lines in nature - just shapes that look like them. But you shouldn't make the outline of the eyes very dark until you are really sure it's in the right place. The bottom of the eye has a slightly different texture along the edge of the lid. I duplicate this by first making vertical strips all along the bottom - very very short but it gives a different texture. Then I darken it but leave some highlight in places which helps make it look more realistic.

Spend a lot of time learning to draw eyes .. it will pay huge dividends in time. The first thing anybody looks at in a portrait whether it be an animal or a human are the eyes. If you don't get them right, the drawing is not going to be a success regardless of anything else you might do. But if you get them right, the drawing will be good and those eyes will cover a multitude of errors elsewhere.

Ken

I started a series of Civil War portraits a couple years ago. Some of those references aren't all that great either, but it's such good practice working from a questionable reference. I find with this one that it is a bit liberating. I'm free to be creative rather than tied too tightly to the reference which sometimes happens. Armin Mersmann has told me he actually prefers poor quality photos for references as he can concentrate on getting the reality of the subject right rather than be distracted by minutiae that is clearly shown in the photo.

When I was doing my cat Casper (in my gallery), I discovered that there was a great deal more to getting the expression correct than I had initially thought. In fact, it was actually more challenging to get all the nuances of his expression done correctly than I find it is to do most humans - and I was working from a wonderful reference. Muscles under the skin lift in places or sag in other places and that also affects the lie of the hair and then the shading of that hair must be taken in account based on the ambient light ... lots to it. It's easier though to capture that minutiae in a larger drawing. Casper was about 12x12 while this one is only 7x7. I expect to spend about 25 hours on this one but Casper took somewhat over 60.

Ken

SparrowHawk, You can be assured there are a lot of us watching for updates on your cat. Somehow looking through your gallery I think you are one of those artist that make a portrait much more beautiful than a photograph could possibly be. I love the fact that you remind us you are still rather new at this that inspires us to practice. Its amazing that you can go from student to teacher and a Master so successfully in such a short time. I watch for your post here and on WetCanvas. Thanks for taking time to share with us.

Thanks Nancy. I guess I have a knack for art although it lay dormant for many many years. I taught myself to paint in oils back around 1990 but I grew tired of that quickly because I could not paint or draw a living creature so my landscapes were lifeless. In 2005 I saw a class offered at my local art shop in drawing and I decided to confront my limitations and see once and for all if I could move beyond them. By the end of the 12 weeks I had found some understanding and at least enough improvement for me to continue on. Since then I have done nothing except graphite and learned a fair amount - mostly from trial and error. Mike Sibley and his wonderful book also opened my eyes to a good deal. Anyway, when I first started out it seemed that nobody whose work I admired was willing to share methods. When I would ask I would get a vague answer that didn't really help ... it seemed they didn't want to share so I didn't bother pushing. As I practiced I got to nagging some for answers which I got (probably mostly to shut me up). Then I would practice and try stuff that I'd learned - some worked for me, some didn't. So as I improved people started asking me those same questions .. how did I do this or that. I'm not a believer in keeping trade secrets - at least as far as art is concerned - so I freely shared what I knew. Those answers got me to thinking more and more about the physics of graphite (I'm trained as an engineer and electronic technician) and that led to a greater understanding of how things worked and why. That is why there is a definite reason behind my doing things in the order I do and why I break "rules" more often than not.

It's kind of you to call me a Master, however I am certainly not. When I think of a master graphite artist I think of Armin Mersmann or Paul Lung just to name two. They are truly masters of the medium but I am still very much a student and learning new things constantly. No matter how much aptitude you might have for a particular thing, skills are built through years and years of practice (and failure) and I have less than 4 years experience. Perhaps in another 10-15 years I may reach the level of a Master, but until then I'm just a student who hopes to eventually became a journeyman. Where I think I probably am a bit ahead of many is in my ability to explain myself and share knowledge easily. Gift of gab I suppose ...

Ken

I'm sorry I've been too caught up in life to keep up with this thread but I have been drawing so I'll catch you up now.

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Here I've balanced out the eyes in a preliminary way. They aren't balanced exactly yet but they are good place holders at this point. VERY carefully I'm feeling for the left hand edge of the face. Last time I tried this one I wasn't able to see the side of her head and got it too wide ... with graphite this dark it isn't possible to remove any and not leave a dark mess so I don't want to do that again.

The nose on the reference was simply too smudged and shadowed to be much use so I went out on the net and found another black cat photo somewhat similar to this pose and superimposed it into the reference in Photoshop .. then drew that. I've roughly sketched out the second ear because I need to figure the top of her head which cannot be seen in the reference (not much can to be honest). Then I sketched in the rest of the upper face as something to go by.

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Not much further but I'm working on balancing the eyes more and went over the entire thing, adding the second ear and that side of the face.

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I didn't like the eyes much so I redid them nearly from scratch once again. That took up about 4 more hours and I didn't go much further with that unfinished side of the face though I did work on the ear a bit more.

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Now I'm starting to see the end of the tunnel. Here's I've added the chest and am working on blending it into the head more smoothly.

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And finally nearly the end. There are still a couple places I need to revisit and fix but this one is quite close to finished now. Our left side of the chest, for instance, is too dark i think and needs to be lightened slightly. This is easiest accomplished with either a warm kneaded eraser or some warm BluTack. I have found that these kinds of erasers work quite a bit better if I hold them in my hand and let the warmth make them soft and even tackier.

I will now look at it for a few more days before spraying to be sure nothing else jumps out at me.

This was the most difficult drawing I've yet tried because that reference was so horrible. However, while it was tough not to have a decent reference to follow, I also found it emancipating to be free to express my creativity more without the constraints a good reference places on you. Pros and cons ... The fact is that the client is paying quite a good price for these 3 which is why I accepted such a reference. I will not do that again, however - it's not worth the added effort.

Anyway, that's about it for this one. I hope I was able to capture the personality of the cat ...
Ken

RJ kinda funny about getting the wrong cat .. I hope you loved and cared for it anyways lol ....but some child was cat-less and sad maybe lol

Ken amazing WIP....you can see the texture of the cats fur ..well done .

Thanks for sharing Ken.

I found it very interesting. I am actually in the process of trying to draw a picture of my uncle from a very bad reference. I'm not sure the result will please me but I will give it a try. At least I know what he sould look like, but I haven't seen him for a while.

And I have an immense respect for your patience. I love your gallery.

Thanks Kim. This isn't quite up to my expected standards but that's entirely due to the reference photo - I'm not really sure WHAT this cat looked like so at best this is a guess. The client was very pleased with the first 2 but seems a bit less so with this however she understands it's the best I can do with the references I had to work with. I overlooked the bad reference as the money was too tempting and I still feel I came out ahead in spite of the time spend .. but if such a situation comes up again I would turn it down I think.

Ken

Hi Natalie. Thank you. I suppose it depends on what you want to get out of your art when working with graphite. If it's more of a realism, then there is absolutely no substitute for patience. In fact, I think pencils can be the most time consuming mediums for producing art. I generally spend up to 60 hours doing a 9x12 drawing .. Armin Mersmann can spend 400-600 hours on a 20x30. In comparison I'm rather impatient .. sigh. I'll have to work on that.

Thanks for looking and commenting. Good luck with your drawing. In general I think it's safe to say that the best drawings generally come from the best references but those aren't always readily available.

Ken