James, I am thrilled with your runner on the stairs in the clouds!
Nice touches.
Kare
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Hi Kare
Our friendship is growing. So to answer your question, first my preference is to trace my initial line drawing. But I guess before that, I try to invest in quality art supplies, including the paper, that will fit my budget.
Second, I take as much time as it takes. In other words, I will spend several days on a small drawing like that , when others will only spend a couple hours.
Third, I watch and do lessons to learn techniques and then I draw and paint a lot. Practice matters if you want to grow this skill set.
And I draw things I like and have fun and feel fulfilled in the process.
Terri Robichon
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I’m going through the “Subjects with Pen and Ink” course, and here is my fourth drawing! I’ve never done pen and ink before joining TVI and I am having so much fun with it!
Anyways, please feel free to give me lots of critique on this. I’m happy with how it turned out, but not 100% satisfied with it.
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Hi @aranck1234 -
This drawing is well done, so much so that I have no recommendations on this one. Keep going.
I love anything “ink” also, whether drawn with a pen, or painted on with a brush. 
Terri Robichon
Hi all
Sonia @Meme5 Lemons Bouquet is amazing I’ve been watching your progress and I feel like I could reach in and pick a lemon of the branch…so realistic. You seem to be able to produce amazing art work in such a short period of time. Likewise, Terri @robichon watching Beaver develop and come to life is mesmerizing. I’m in awe at all the great pieces on this “most recent drawing” topic. @1kidneyJD I love the stairs in the clouds.
This is the start of graphite attempt at my cat Pickle. I’m having real problems getting that wispy look of fur in his ear. I have attempted that left hand ear about 4 times now over the course of days. So much erasing I’m losing the paper tooth and I’m still no where near finished with just that little bit. Getting those tiny wispy highlights is a nightmare I think I’ve tried every way possible with every tool going but I just cant seem to get those light fur lines fine enough. Any help would be very much appreciated.
Sue
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Ive decided to ditch the drawing above of my cat “Pickle”. I tried to get wispy highlights with white Posca and it just merged with the graphite, hence top of ear is too dark - in bright light its noticeable especially to me because i know its there. oh well its all a good learning experience…so Im starting again…but any advise on how to tackle those pesky tiny bits of white fur will be great.
Sue
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Oh no! I truly think you were doing a wonderful job with your cat!
Seems like you are focusing too hard to draw “wispy hair in the ear” as opposed to focusing on the shapes of values you see and adding details after blocking those values within the shape. Also drawing the illusion of the wispy hair. Which you had already done very welI. I have struggled with stepping aside from thinking in terms of the actual body part instead of focusing on the shapes within them and draw those. I hope this makes sense and it’s helpful.
Sonia Alonzo
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Hi Sue @snookypooky -
It took me a while to respond because I tried a few sample squares to test some optional techniques and to show you the results. I’ll give you my sketches and then share my thoughts. I used my own cat Louie for my reference photo.
On the upper left square I used a sharp WHITE COLORED PENCIL to draw the light hairs first (tricky because it’s hard to see white pencil on white paper). My thought was that waxy colored pencil would resist having graphite put on top of it. It worked okay for the big whiskers, but not so good for the light hairs in the ears.
On the upper right, an effective solution is to get an “embossing tool” with a small metal tip. Pressing HARD use the tool to draw in where you want the whiskers and light hairs. Then when you actually draw with graphite, the pencil will skip over the grooves in the paper. You can then use a sharp pencil (hard lead vs softer B leads) at the edges of the lighter hairs and clean up the lines if needed and/or add more contrast.
On the lower left square, I drew in everything but the hairs. My final step was to go back with an electric eraser to add the white lines by erasing the graphite in those locations. This doesn’t work very well if you have already overworked the paper. Again clean-up or refinement can be made by going back with a sharp pencil and working on the edges. Sometimes the erased lines are too broad.
My approach, especially with detailed subjects is to TRACE my initial drawing (rather than using the grid method). You can see this on the lower right square. Then I work on refining the drawing leaving the paper untouched where the white hairs are located. For an example of how this looks when it is finished, see episode 498 of the Members Minute. This was an ink ballpoint pen drawing of my cat Missy. (This drawing of Missy can also be seen by scrolling way back on this (My Recent Drawing or Painting) post to Sept 2024)).
Generally speaking, the secret to seeing white hairs is to have a lot of contrast around them. Most people are afraid to go as dark as necessary in the adjacent areas.
I want to end by saying that what you want to do is REALLY DIFFICULT and I always struggle to get it right. And to do this right, it takes a lot of time and patience. Practice these ideas and see if any of the techniques work for you.
Another thought while you are learning, consider doing your drawing using charcoal or pastels. Then you can easily use WHITE CHARCOAL to add the hairs. And I would wait until everything else is done before adding whiskers.
Hope this helps.
Terri Robichon
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Hello Sue, @snookypooky thank you for your kind words. Sorry to hear you ditched your project. I am adding one of our cats to my next project, first time drawing any animal. If I figure it out before you start again I’ll let you know about cat ears. I am sure there is a course on drawing animals, which I will need to do.
Keep drawing and sharing.
James from Covina Ca
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Terri @robichon
What a wonderful ensemble of samples to help with stronger outcomes!
So happy to see your practice pieces. Very informative and detailed. Thank you so much for sharing with us!
Sonia Alonzo
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Excellent advice Sonia @Meme5
Terri
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OH MY SONIA - I really love seeing how this drawing of lemons evolves. So so very nice. Actually excellent is a better word for it.
Terri
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Thank you so very much! It means a lot coming from you! There’s so much to be done, BUT, I am being patient and focus and will do all the adjustments to leaves, ect., AFTER it’s completed as to not have it look like pomegranate colored lemons haha
Sonia Alonzo
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I am posting this here because my dear Forum friend Sonia @Meme5 shared it with me, and it has been so helpful. These are 4 of the 5 available colors of Saral - wax free transfer paper.
I used the WHITE when I did my cat Louie on black scratchboard.
Recently I used the blue for my traced initial drawing for a landscape Oil Painting from the last live lesson. By not always having a black graphite drawing it helps to keep the colors more vibrant. Now let me show you this initial drawing . . .
You can see the blue lines using the transfer paper. The other idea I’m trying out is using a very quick watercolor underpainting to map out where the colors will go. I think it is so much easier to follow than just a LOT of lines. Matt did a more developed watercolor underpainting in his “Colored Pencils PLUS” course.
And that’s all the advice I have for today.
Terri
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Terri @robichon when I get to my cat in the project I just started I will refer to your illustrations thanks for sharing.
James from Covina Ca
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Thank you lovely people for your great advice.
Sonia @Meme5 You are extremely helpful and you’re right - my brain says “wispy cats ear fur” repeatedly despite knowing I should be concentrating on shapes and values 
But I’m learning not to listen to myself and not to use Posca pen on white paper and graphite 
Your Lemon bouquet is exquisite. Looking forward to seeing it when finished.
Terri @robichon. Thank you. 
You have gone above and beyond to help me and it certainly gives me a lot of things to consider in my next attempt. I have purchased a tin of 48 Prismacolor pencils and I’m considering using them in my next attempt. Yet, I feel I’m then bailing out on something I obviously need to practice using graphite… and I might find coloring pencil even harder to master. I’m going to watch 498 members minutes after posting this. Spending your time to explain so thoroughly how I can approach this, you have been more than helpful and I’m sure others will benefit from your post…I certainly will.
James @1kidneyJD Good luck with your cat project. Keep me posted on how you are getting on. I hope your cat has minimal wispy ear fur! 
Thanks to all
Sue
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There goes another wonderful Terri artwork. Thanks for sharing both the progress and the final product. 
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Terri @robichon,
What a wonderful tip to share! I have such an overactive brain that all the lessons from TVI are randomly selected so I have followed along tons of them and have not come across the one underpainting with watercolor. Thank you so much for bringing it up, plus showing your very own process. It is super helpful for me as well since I am falling in love with oils. I don’t know if I will ever come close to mastering oils, but I know I’m hooked for life. It’s lovely knowing I have something literally waiting to get worked on forcing me to wait until the right moment to continue on.
Your landscape is looking wonderful already.
Sonia Alonzo
1 Like
