How to Make a Flat Cat - Tabbies

Welcome back kitties!  Today we are going to color a tabby.  Essentially, its done the same way as we did yesterday.  The main difference is we are going to be using very short strokes instead of the long sweeping ones for long haired cats.

The photo was of Carl (our house panther) but I am going to pretend its Oui Oui. The lesson here is you can color your kitty any way you'd like, without regard to what the original looks like.  The photo had a disproportionately big head because of the camera angle, so that is why today's kitty has a big head.

Here I've blocked out about where the stripes go.

I've smeared the first brown, using the color on my fingers to fill in the areas between the stripes.   I've also decided to get rid of the tie.

I've smeared and added more brown, just building up layers.

I usually don't use black, but I'm using it to accentuate the stripes.

 I've smeared the black and gone over it with a dark brown.  Now when I smear I am trying to leave very short strokes so the stripes look banded.

Just building the layers.  All the strokes are short.  I draw them very quickly, keeping them fast and loose.  Hee, hee.

More of the same.  I added color to the face with pastel on my finger as well as little strokes in the stripes.  I even did the ears that way.

 A close up.  I've worked in more brown and black then added a little yellowish tan between the stripes to give the fur a richer look.  Also notice there is a reddish brown on Oui Oui's tummy.  Her belly  has a lot of ruddy fur.

 Starting work on the face.  I decided to outline the eyes.  I'm using a combination of adding color with my finger & strokes.

 Using a sharp edge, I've added pink and brown to the nose and used brown for the lips.  I've smeared both a little, just to take off the hardness.

 I've added more color.  I can also use white to change anything I don't like about the nose and mouth.  I also outlined one side of the ears with the yellow-tan.

I've added the same yellow between stripes to brighten the face and lowered one of the lips.

I've given Oui Oui dark paws so you can see a little how to do dark ones.  Maybe I'll change them from house panther/ meezer paws to tabby paws tomorrow.







I am going to have to stop there tonight.  Tomorrow I'll go over the eyes.  I have a drawing of MMM that could be colored.  Any requests?  Is there anything you'd really like to see?

Thanks for visiting and for your patience.  I hope you try to make one of these. and I can't stress how easy and flexible pastels are to use!  Many of the moms (and dads) say they can't draw a straight line.  Well guess what?  I can't either!  And not that I would want to!  Have a little faith in yourself - I do!

I'm sorry about not leaving comments, again, this just takes so much time!

How to Make a Flat Cat - Coloring

You have drawn and outlined your flat cat and now you are ready to personalize it by coloring.  There are a number of media I like, but colored pencils and soft pastels would be the easiest for an inexperienced artist.  One of the fun things is experimenting with color.  Your can use unconventional colors in the same way the Impressionists did.  Here is how I colored Julie's head above.

I apologize in advance for the photos.  On my phone the colors looked really dark, when I posted them, they looked really light.  Please enlarge so you can see more clearly strokes and the effects of smearing.  My own Julie flat cat was very cartoon like, but I'd like to show you how to use pastels.

 I erased most of the lines leaving just enough to guide me.  I blocked the dark areas out in light blue.  I got the idea to use blue from the little old ladies who used bluing to make their hair whiter.  MOL

 I added a background for contrast so you could see it better.  I rubbed my fingers on the pastel and swirled the color into place.  See how nice and soft it is?  A great technique for the face.

 Its a messy affair.  You need to shake the dust off your picture into the trash and wash your hands often.  When you use a pastel over color already laid down, you will need to wipe the pastel too.

I've put dark blue strokes in the darkest areas .  I'm using more color than needed because the final step will be added white strokes.  Smear strokes as needed.  I'm using a dark purple for the darkest parts.

I've smeared to blend some areas then gone over with large sweeping strokes in white.  Strokes should flow in the direction of the fur.  Experiment with varying the pressure, use less, more, or starting out heavy and ending light.

 I could end it here, but its not the 1960's

I've taken my meds and they've kicked in.

I've swirled my finger on a grey pastel and gone over the medium dark areas.  I'd like to keep some of the blues and purples.

 I've added pink to the lightest areas (still leaving the whitest areas paper white), added more grey.

 I've blended, smeared and added more pink.

I've added grey strokes, and worked on the ears and eyes.

I have no idea how I made this picture this shape!  I added a lot of white strokes which tones down the other colors.  And I've needed to wipe the white pastel off often.  A sharp edge will give a narrow stroke and a wider edge a softer, wider one.

This is the final product.  I've added some grey around the eyes and a few strokes.  I could continue refining it by working on the whisker holes on her whisker humps and a few other areas, but I think you get the general idea. 

By starting with blue and purple, I wanted to show you how easy it was to change the entire look of your kitty so you wouldn't be afraid to experiment and try new things.  I almost never use black.  I think you get a much richer look by using other colors.  I block out the darks first, then start adding color.  Think of and follow the bone structure under the fur.  When doing your kitty, keep your strokes flowing in the direction the fur grows.  The softer areas you can add color with your finger tip.

I think next I'll talk about finishing, then come back to coloring tabbies, unless you want tabbies first.  Let me know in the comments. Do you have any particular question?  I will be covering eyes after tabbies.

My Julie flat cat wasn't nearly as detailed as the head I did above and more cartoon like, I wanted to give you an idea of the range of techniques you could use.

A Wretched Week

Oh, kitties!  Do you see what has become of my life?  What a misery this past week has been!  Let me tell you . . .

Despite my protests, that evil mom stuffed me into the PTU last Saturday morning, and I had a feeling I was in for trouble.  Kitties are good about knowing things like that.  Well, I yelled at the mom all the way (yes, I was right) to the VETS  {{shutter}}, and while waiting for him to make his distressing appearance.  When he showed up, it just took my breath away, and I couldn't scream any more, no matter how hard I tried!

What can I say?  The scabs were a little itchy.

No biggy!

Strangely, the mom and he were happy I was yelling!  They thought that meant my kitty Prozac was working, but it really meant I was MAD!  Instead of trying to make myself small and hiding, and only squeaking when I didn't like something, I showed off my lungs.  And I got a couple of good hisses in too!  You would have been so proud of me!

Anyway, to get back to my story, the torcherer said I had OCD!  What the ???   Just because I did my eyebrows?  I like the way my eyebrows look.  The mom plucks hers, why can't I?  It must be some form of discrimination, I just know it.

He did give me some lovely little pink pills to take in my favorite treat, salmon Pill Pockets, and I have been feeling really well.  I stopped plucking my eyebrows in front of the mom, but she noticed me scratching them with my back feet, so she stuck a doughnut around my neck!  Do you think she could be some sort of alien pod person?

It was a fierce battle!  Other kitties ran and became scarce when they heard my mighty hollering and hissing.  Then the sight of me scart them when they came back!  They probably thought I was some sort of alien pod cat.

I had to hide in a corner because I can't get under the bed any more!

My siblings were scart 

and waited anxiously outside my room

for all my screeching and cussing to be over.

I had to get it out of my system.

Ridiculous! Look how I sleep now!  And I couldn't snuggle up with Oui Oui or the mom properly either.  I was really big-hearted and forgave her.


So, the mom was telling me she hoped I could break the habit and let my scabs heal.  Silly woman!

I hope all you kitties have a great weekend.  I'll be spending mine getting used to having a personal air pillow attached to my neck.  At least the mom picked out a collar that lets me eat and doesn't obstruct my vision.  Purrs!  And stay safe!


BTW, thank you for all your purrs for me.   The mom and the vet have checked out all sorts of things, trying to get me to stop taking my eyebrows off.  They've done the allergy thing, calming treats, drops and collars, pheromones, Spirit Essences, coconut oil, steroids, and a few other meds as well.  If this doesn't work, the mom doesn't know what she'll do!

How to Make a Flat Cat, Part 3

Welcome back, kitties!  Thanks for sticking with us!

Today we are going to outline our flat cat with a fine line Sharpie.  My tips to you today are:

Always draw in the same direction.  I find it easiest to draw from the top and pull the Sharpie towards me.  I rotate the sheet often as I go along.  Also, don't block where you are drawing to with your hand, rotate a little as necessary so you can see where you are going.

You aren't going to be able to draw your cat in one stroke.  Try to match strokes up as well as you can.  This requires a steady hand, so support it on the table if you need to.  This step gives me the willies because I hate drawing continuous lines, so its the hardest part for me.

When done, use your new, wonderful eraser to erase the lines you have traced.  You may not have traced over everything, so you can leave those untraced pencil lines on your drawing for later.  See how cleanly a good eraser works?  Bliss!

You may notice your lines aren't perfect when you are done erasing, well, that is a sign of a hand made product.  Touch them up as best you can.  There are ways of dealing with imperfections as you color and cut.

 This is my pencil drawing.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to put the ear hair in on the farther ear, and I thickened the ear up a little so it wouldn't bend so easily (it still will, alas).

It would probably be helpful to biggify the pix below so you can see the details better.

 Here is my outline before erasing.  Notice I didn't trace the curve of the hind leg and the line for the back of the front leg.  I am thinking the coloring will carry these elements, but I can always trace them in Sharpie later if I don't like the look.  Its better to do too little and add later, than to draw something in and regret that you had.

MMM's nose didn't turn out very well because I should have used the very tip of the Sharpie, and her lip looks square.  Luckily, that will be cut away, and her nose can be fixed when coloring.  The lines around her eye look a little ragged, but her face is dark, so I don't think that will be noticeable.  There's a small stray line on her chin that can be fixed when coloring too.





Notice I filled in the pupils.  Before you do that, decide where your light is coming from and the small pinprick of light goes on that side.  Without that little white spot, the eyes will look lifeless and dull, so its a very important feature.  MMM's spot could have been a little bigger, so check out the eyes on Julie's & Oui Oui's flat cats below.  I'll talk more about eyes later.

After going through all this, I'd like to say you don't have to outline your kitties at all!  Maybe you would like a more natural looking drawing, and that is purrfectly fine!  You are the artist and creator, and you get to do whatever you like however you want.  If you don't outline, then you will need to keep your pencil lines very light so they don't show when colored in.  You might have to lightly erase them, but leave enough to guide you.

That's it!  Now we are ready for the best part - coloring!  I am going to take a break from flat cats to give me a chance to do some coloring, and get caught up on visiting, emails and other things. These posts don't seem like much, but they are time intensive.  We'll resume flat cats on Monday.

So thanks again.  In the meantime you can pick up some supplies, and practice coloring with your pastels or pencils so you get a feel for what they are like.  And if you don't feel comfortable with a Sharpie, practice, practice, practice on scrap paper first!  Then you'll feel like a pro.

How to Make a Flat Cat, Part 2

Hi kitties, and thanks for coming back!  I hope you are thinking of what you want your flat cat to look like.  I want to assure you, you don't need any drawing talent to trace, so don't sell yourself short!  This can be a fun project and a chance to let your inner child out.

Today I am going to talk about materials.  Although I didn't laminate my Flat Cats, you may want to, and that will affect what kind of paper you'll want to use.  It should be smooth since textured papers may leave little air pockets when laminated and not look right.  That will rule out coloring with watercolors or acrylics since they require heavier, textured paper so it won't curl or pucker when painted on.

I just used cheap copier paper because my nicer papers weren't large enough and I didn't want to run to the store.  You might be able to get away with paper that is 8.5x11 (standard letterhead size), depending on your pose.  I used 11x17 paper.

For coloring, I suggest using either soft (chalk) pastels or colored pencils.  Crayons don't smear and you can't go over the first layer again.  Whatever you put down is what you are struck with.  If you decide to try pastels, don't buy oil or hard pastels, or pastel pencils.  They are not the same thing as soft pastels, and are hard to smear and work with.  They also contain oil which could stain your flat cat.

Pastels blend really well.

Biggify to see how you can get soft edges in the fur 

and sharp lines in the eyes with pastels.

We will go over these techniques later.

Make sure you have a good eraser.  The cheap pink things remove paper as well as unwanted lines.  Put fingers above and below where you want to erase so you don't crinkle the paper when erasing.  Good quality erasers are only a couple bucks and are a great investment.  I love kneaded erasers.  When they get dirty, you tear them apart and smoosh them back together to clean them.  I have fond memories of surreptitiously molding kneaded erasers into all kinds of animals under my desk in grammar school.

2 kinds of good erasers.  To the left is a kneaded eraser.

(I always have a spare.)

While you might feel more comfortable with colored pencils, give some thought to soft pastels.  They are inexpensive and fun to work with.  They do produce a lot of dust and you will need to wash your hands often.  I use the dust to smear the color around.  It produces a nice, soft fur-like finish that you can't get with any other medium.

A relatively new set of soft pastels.

Its normal for them to break as they are used.

I don't advocate this brand, its just what I had.

I would pay attention to what colors are in the set, 

try to find one with colors close to your cat if you can.

(I was disappointed with the tans in this set.)

Pastels break easily, but that is ok.  You can use the sharp edge to define small areas and the broad side to fill in large areas.  You can go over, rework and erase pastels.  Since pastels smear easily, you have to be careful not to smear areas you don't intend to.  And you will need to use a fixative when you are done.

Fixatives are notorious for changing pastels' colors.

Biggify and look at MMM's neck for large yellow patches.

The fixative did that.  

Less obvious are the white patch on her neck

and the white areas on her legs and toes.

The fixative darkened the whites so they are quite subtle.

Aside from that, notice the softness to the colors, 

look at her inner ear to see how well colors blend together.

Erasers, pastels, fixative (which I'll talk more about later) and paper, if necessary, are available in art supply or arts & crafts stores.  Tomorrow we will continue with the steps after tracing your cat.  Til then!

How to Make a Flat Cat, Part I

Kitties, this is the mom.  Much to their chagrin, the kitties here had to acknowledge they couldn't help much making flat cats, except for snoopervising.  So you are stuck with me.  I had to promise them I would behave and also lots of crab and ham.

Our Flat Cats.

I suggest you work from a photo of your cat.  It will help you with the correct proportions and colors.  You want your flat cat to have a wide base so it will be stable, so poses sitting up and laying down are best.  I've found some good images by looking up "white cats" through Google Images.

 

Nice wide base, good shot of face.

Good shot if you are going to use a photo.

The base of this may have to be modified a little.  Good if you are going to try drawing the kitty.

This is good, the feet and tail will make a nice base.  Perhaps the small dark area behind the front feet could be modified and filled in with fur if you are drawing, but it would work as a photo too.

This cutie would need some modification, especially on the left side,

and the paws could be pulled in a little.

Best used as a drawing.

I am going to start with the easiest way and work up to free hand drawing.

The easiest way, of course, is to enlarge a photograph to the size you want the flat cat to be.  If your photo becomes pixelated or you can't blow it up large enough to suit you, then you will need to be a little more creative.

The next easiest way is to blow up a photo in black and white on a copier then color it to match your kitties.  If you have a photo you love, try blowing it up on the copier at work.  Your employer will love this!  When you have it to the proper size, then its ready for coloring.

If you don't have a photo to use, try Googling "white cats" and look for a kitty with the same basic body shape as yours that can be colored to look like your cat.  Then blow it up.  A dark contrasting background helps.

Perhaps you are a little more creative and would like to draw your kitties, but don't feel very confident about your abilities.  You can again blow up a photo to the right size then tape it up in a window, tape a blank sheet of sheet over it and then trace it.  Perhaps you have a projector and can project the image on a wall then trace it that way.  Maybe you could trace it very gently and carefully on your monitor.

Then there is free hand drawing, but I am going to cover that in another post.  We are going to go back to tracing the image because I think most people would feel more comfortable doing that.

Here I've enlarged a photo of Julie with a dark background so it was easy to see her image while tracing, like the white cats at the beginning of this post.

Here I've traced a photo of MMM.

Here are the tracings when I took them down.  Notice I did the outlines and a few features only.

I forgot to take a photo of Carl's tracing when it was in the window.  I really don't think this one works because it doesn't have a wide base, but I am going to use it to show coloring techniques, so I am not worried about that.

I then removed the tracings and firmed up the lines while studying the original photo and the copy I traced from.

So here is Julie's head.  I am going to use it to show you how to shade.

 I really like how MMM's face came out.  Please biggify these to get a closer look of the amount of detail.  And sorry, but I have a very scratchy style of drawing (figures), which I've tried to minimize.  I couldn't see where her hind leg went from the photo, but I just tried to lightly indicate the approximate location.

I've drawn 2 possibilities for Carl's base.  One has his tail wrapped around to the front and the other shows his hind paw and leg.  Remember, one of the great things about drawing is you get to do it your way, and no one can tell you it is wrong.  So you can change whatever you like to how you'd like it and that is ok.  I've always felt if you want a piece of art to look like a photo, take a picture.

Notice in the last set of drawings I have taken the time to firm up the lines, the eyes, the nose, etc.  This is the time when you work out all those details.  Use a number 2 pencil, and draw lightly.  Enlarge the photos to see my heavy, dark lines are many light ones.  And use a decent eraser, not that horrid pink thing at the end of your pencil!

A couple tricks I learned in my college drawing classes many life times ago are:   One, look at your drawing upside down and two, look at it in a mirror.  You are looking critically for irregularities, like crooked eyes, one side of the mouth not matching the other and things of that nature.  Since you traced, you shouldn't have many of these issues, but you should check for them anyway.

Take a little time to think about what you'd like to do and how you'd like to do it, but don't start until we have covered materials.  Tomorrow I will talk about materials, coloring media and erasers, then we'll cover drawing without tracing, coloring/ shading and then final assembly.  Please forgive me for not doing comments while I write this series, I have a lot of work to do!  But if you have questions, leave a comment and I'll answer them.

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BTW, We are hosting an event at the Tabby Cat Club today, "What Makes My Home Town Special", so pop on by to read all about some pretty wonderful places!