gothic art – paynes grey illustration

Fluffy Cat in Graphite – Art Process

by Alison Rasmussen

I think mark making is a great way to build texture with graphite and I really love drawing fluffy things. I also yearn for a kitty cat but for various reasons I don’t have one, so it’s best to make one to fill that kitty cat void. This one looks very sympathetic and very fluffy!

Some time ago I drew a very silly cat called Slinky, shaped liked a skittle/bowling pin and very lanky, and I thought, since it’s kind of chilly, maybe she needed more hair.

I’m using some new pencils for the first time – Mars Lumograph Black – I like Mars Lumograph a lot, so I decided to test out the Black ones. They are similar to the others, just not as shiny as far as I can tell. My other tools include mechanical pencils, paper tornichons, and different erasers – a putty eraser, blue-tac, and a pencil eraser, which is, I guess, like a stick eraser in pencil form (must get me one on those!)

I don’t use the mechanical pencils for the mark making – there’s only so much you can do with a mechanical pencil as the lead can’t take the pressure, but they are good for laying out the initial line work, as I don’t need to worry about making errors and having to sharpen the wooden pencils into stubs before I’m even finished!

The paper I’m using is a lovely bright white – Canson extra white drawing paper 120 g/m²– but to be honest just use whatever you like – I just like it very white! I have ordered white paper in the past that wasn’t remotely white and left me feeling rather bitter, so to actually find some that is bright and very white, well, I just feel I should mention it! 😊

I started out by working on the basic shape of the cat. I made her neck a little wider to take into account the fluff I‘m planning, and then started with the Black pencils. I added small lines and dashes very lightly, following the natural flow of the fur and the underlying structure of the cat’s body to make it believable. Even if she is a fantasy cat, she still needs to be believable. I drew the tail across her body – even though I plan to have it sit behind, this way the ends will meet, and make sense visually.

I blended my marks with the tornichon where the areas are small on her face and used a piece of cotton wool for the body. Then I kept working on another layer of marks, adding flicks of graphite along the contours to explain the changes in direction of the bones and muscles that sit beneath. I also used this to show the interaction with the cat’s environment i.e., the fur resting on the floor, flattened, or pushed up and out.

I changed to a heavier grade pencil, a 4B (then a 6B) so I could build on top of existing marks, and I added white flicks of exposed paper with the sharpened pencil eraser and the moulded to a point putty rubber. Keep the points of the erasers clean so they don’t add any unwanted smudges. Constantly sharpening the pencil eraser is a waste so you can use fine sandpaper to clean it off from time to time.

I also blended the sides of the cat to give her a blurred edge which would hopefully suggest a fuzzy fluffy fur effect. Continuing with the tornichon, I blended the marks I’d already made on the tail. I focussed on a line that ran down the centre of the length to suggest density where the bones would be and gave a lighter feel where only hair makes up the shape.

I started adding darker layers with a 6B to add a bit of depth. I realised at some point she had begun to look a little fluffier than I had intended. I’d lost sight of the skeleton and muscle, so I took steps to lift off some of the graphite with the putty rubber and the pencil eraser. Pushing the pencil with upwards strokes, as if working underneath the fur, creates some important shading as it creates a denser appearance. I did this with the darker 6B but I didn’t go overboard as too much uniformity with the mark making spoils the effect.

I finished with an 8B to add definition and find any lost details and sharpen up any important lines. And now Slinky is all set for a cold Spring!

I’ve focussed on the fur texture here and so I haven’t mentioned the eyes, but I plan to write about drawing eyes another time.

Oh! I’ve included some of the other floofs I made. They insisted! 😊