New USK Stoke challenge day three.

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Try drawing a speedy cat, and include the background. Our challenge today was to draw something we love. In my case its one of our cats. She likes balancing with her front paws on the airer I use for washing, and her back paws on the cat tree. The result is a bit wibbly-wobbly.

I haven’t done an exact portrait, but that’s because she keeps moving, unless she’s curled up in a tight ball. Her brother is a bit quiet at the moment. He’s been enjoying sleeping on the windowledge upstairs in the sun.

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Finding the sun…

That’s what my cat does. He lies in the sun and keeps himself warm, and hides his head under his paw (an idea from the poem about a robin). Apparently cats sleep about 16 hours a day, but usually somewhere quiet where I can’t easily find them. But this morning, there he was in a Ray of bright sunshine. I had to reduce the exposure because it was so bright I was losing details.

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Cat sketch

dsc_2407.jpgI do like sketching in biro, you can get a good strong line, but by varying the pressure on the pen its good for shading. I have also found that by spraying the biro with hairspray you can sometimes get the ink to blur and bleed. If you are using black or blue biro you get interesting colours flowing from the lines. I guess it depends on the chemicals in both the pen and the hairspray. It might not always work. I have also used hairspray as a fixative for astel and charcoal drawings.

Did you know you can use milk sprayed onto charcoal or pastel as a fixative too? I found an old perfume bottle with an atomiser and used that to spray drawings. They might end up smelling a bit cheesy but it works. You just have to remember to wash out the bottle and spray after use.

Purring cats

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Purring puss

He loves his new basket

Curled up warm and snug!

But jealousy arrives with his sister

Who loves it too.

Squabbles ensue, much chasing,

up and down stairs,

behind the curtains…

Scooting backwards and forwards,

In and out the basket,

one after the other.

Till finally,

they both ignore it,

staying in seperate places.

Eyeing up the basket,

at an impasse….

Neither willing to trespass.

Wish I’d bought two.

The hunt is on for new owners.

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This is Woody, formerly known as Smudge. He has apparently been abandoned by his owners. It turns out he us nine years old, and he’s been living in our summerhouse for a few months. He’s a healthy cat and loving. We would take him in but our cats live indoors ( they are rescue cats and won’t let me take them to the vets for inoculation.) So they have to stay in, and he stays out. But it’s getting towards winter. I think he needs to be a single cat, and to be allowed freedom to come and go. But us a warm hearth too much to ask? Cats protection are putting out an appeal soon to try and find someone to take him in and give him the love he deserves. I think he will need attention to get him back with humans, but he likes to be loved and sits on your lap to be stroked.

Apparently black and white cats are not popular, which is strange as all the cats we have had, except one, have been cute black and white.

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Cat painting

This was what I was painting at 2am this morning. Bit more to do. I just liked his cheeky look. The background is a bit weird but I might leave it.

Next is a painting of either Mars or Earth. I’ve already done a couple of Jupiter so it would be interesting to paint something different. I just need a decent photo to work from.