This drawing is moving along. I put 2 more hours into it last evening. Progress is slow but steady! I am satisfied with this side of the face. I 've darkened the nose and eyes to the point at which I believe they will stay. I will proceed to the other side of the face which will be a bit darker...in the shadow.

I put in another 4 hours work on this last evening. I had to make a correction to the chin area...I seem to have gotten lost while working on the whiskers. I've also worked on the overall depth of the hair shading...it is coming along layer by layer. I am concentrating on not getting in a rush, trying to take my time and get as much out of the shading process as I can before moving on to the other side of the face.

I've developed the direction of hair growth and have worked out the position of the whiskers. I used a 6H pencil to lay down a number of layers of graphite using light strokes in the direction of growth then continued with H, B and 2B pencils to create the shading variations. For the whiskers I began by drawing in the shadow under each one and then tried to maintain the whiteness above it as the whisker itself...gradually refining the thickness and lifting out smudging and such with a kneaded eraser. I do not use any blending tools other than an 8H pencil with a very light touch. This seems for me to pull enough graphite out and to create a crisp yet blended transition. The key for me is to keep laying down graphite gradually. I made this progress over 4 hours last evening.

I have a delightful new cat close up in progress. This one will give me some practice doing whiskers. I placed the eyes and nose and other prominent features using the grid method. I like to start with the eyes, giving them lots of very light layers of graphite to bring out their shape and shading. I use a circular movement when I work on the iris and the nose. This for me gives the texture a seemingly real look. The progress shown here represents approximately 4 hours of work. I started it last evening while watching TV...then spent a couple of hours this morning refining the eyes and developing the rubbery little nose

I have finished the cat portrait...I like it. It turned out better than I thought it would. Those ears are far from perfect but I think there is improvement showing. That I think will be my focus for learning for the next little while. More cats to follow!!

The cat portrait is coming along pleasingly. I am, however, labouring over the ears. Those wispy ear hairs are difficult for me to render. I am getting better at it each time I draw a cat but it is definitely the most difficult part for me. Fun but difficult!!

I am making some progress with the cat close up. The texture of the fur is coming nicely but there is still quite a ways to go. Time or rather the lack of time is all that is holding me back. I find this to be an enjoyable work. I will be gracing the wall of our Cat Room in the boarding kennel with this fellow and 5 others I have completed previously. Anyway it will be a few weeks before that wall is built so I can take my time and enjoy the process.

Well now it has been a while since I have danced with the creative muse. Between the yard and garden and my little grooming visitors my time has been kind of monopolized. Here I am at last though with a cat in progress. It is a weekly challenge at WC but I doubt that I will get it finished by the end of the week...it is Saturday already afterall. It is such a lovely closeup to work on! At this point I'm doing some preliminary hair texture. The eyes have a good start but still need some refining. I am totally enjoying this one.