Well, the cat has had her stitches out and no longer needs to wear the dreaded cone collar... but I did have fun sketching her! I especially enjoyed doing some contour sketching... have trimmed a couple down and mounted them on card stock. I think a 'thank you' card to the team at the vet surgery may be in order! I might put a couple of these on my Folksy online shop too - 'get well soon' cards for cat lovers!

Not impressed!

My studio assistant (aka the cat) has not had a good week! She came in last week with a big cut on her tail so has been patched up by the vet, and is not impressed with her new headgear...

So of course I took the opportunity to do some contour sketches!

Poor kitty!

More cat sketching

Hello all!

Here's a fairly quick sketch of the cat, done with marker pens followed by pastels...

And a drawing done in pencil (I've since added her whiskers in you'll be pleased to learn!):

Sketching the cat

Well, now I have a lovely feline model I decided to make the most of it and get sketching...

Top three all sketches done with a kuretake sketching pen

These two double pages are contour drawings. Love doing these!

My new studio assistant!

Meet Suki, the newest addition to the household here, adopted from Wood Green Animal Shelter just down the road from me here in Cambridgeshire...

She is the sweetest little cat, but I have to admit she does have that look of feline superiority that says she's in charge...

I guess there will be some feline-based art in the future...

Little egret linocut

Hello!

Just back from a lovely weekend with my sister and family, and now have some time to post my latest linocut - a little egret.

Reduction linocut, printed area 6 by 8" approximately, on Simili paper.

This is based on a photo I took a couple of years ago at the Ouse Washes nature reserve. When I was a bird-mad kid little egrets were unthinkably exotic; over recent years their range has expanded, and they are now a reasonably common sight at wetlands and gravel pits.

Some stages below:

Quite a striking bird, and they're great to see in the wild :-)

Kestrel, watching

Hello again! Here's what I've been working on for the last few days. I took the reference photo a few years ago, at a local nature reserve.

Watercolour and ink, quarter sheet (Fabriano Artistico CP).

This is a European kestrel perched atop a shrubby tree, surveying the ground for her next meal; I often see them perched like this along the roadside verges, scanning the ground for their next meal...