Wednesday 29 April 2009

I thought I saw a Puddy Tat!


Since our dear cat, Sparky, died, I've put out food for the strays who hang around.
Most of them ping off when I appear, but here's one who seems interested in me, as well as filling an already ample stomach, and who enjoys being stroked.
A few days later he's ventured into the kitchen....and here we are a couple of months down the line .... he's a well-established lap accessory- he's Ours and he's called Jumbo!
He's also new subject matter.
Like most animals he doesn't stay put for long, but it really sharpens the eye to line-draw quick glimpses, even if it's just the curve of a back. Once you have a few of these together on a page there's a lovely feeling of movement.
Charcoal, conte crayon, pen or soft pencil suit this- they give a good strong line.
At Art school we drew the moving model as a limbering up exercise, or did thirty second poses. And yet, come to think of it, I don't think the model was allowed to move then- this came in later.
Thankfully so for the 65 year-old monumental Mrs.Goldy who was our introduction to Life Drawing in the Sixties...phew!..I'll go and sketch the cat!

Pictured here: 'Jumbo' 2009 ADPrice
'Pebble' 2007 & 'Stray Cat' 2001
Caroline Johnson.

2 comments:

DOT said...

My granddaughter has just been given her first little moggy for her fourth birthday. Apparently it took half an hour for to realise the kitten was for her.

My father was a Japaneses prisoner of war, captured at the fall Singapore so I have always had a strong affinity for Searle.

(Apologies, but for reasons beyond my control your blog fell out of my landscape.)

Caroline said...

Good to hear from you, Dave, I keep reading your blog..
Perhaps she'll draw the kitten? My daughters old school books are full of them... "I plaid with the kitens and the one that looked like the Mum kept climeing on her back", with illustrations!