Cat Figurine

I recently completed a beginning drawing class with J. Elizabeth Johnson. This was an in person class instead of an internet class, and Elizabeth is a good teacher (her website is here). She then offered an intermediate class to follow up, but I had date conflicts, so she very generously offered to teach me by email. I drew this for my first lesson.

A good friend gave me this figurine when her mother-in-law died - my friend is allergic to cats and she knows how much I love them, so she thought I would enjoy the figurine (which I do). My first lesson was to draw an object from life rather than from a photograph. I chose this figurine (the photo is below).

I'm finding that I really don't care much for drawing with graphite pencil, but I'm learning a lot anyway.  And the better my drawing skills are, the better my paintings will look.

Car

I think I may have mentioned that I'm taking a drawing class; if not, I should have, because it's been great. I'm taking it at a rubber stamp store called And Bear Makes 3 that is located in Moore, Oklahoma, and it's being taught by Elizabeth Johnson. Today was my last class. We were to choose a photo from a magazine of something we wanted to draw. I have no idea why I chose this; I think I might have thought it would be easy; I was wrong. Once I got into it, I discovered it was MUCH more complicated than I thought it would be. But I'm fairly satisfied with how it turned out.

Rabbit Day 7

I'm down to 16 minutes now. A long way from finished, but I actually got farther along with this one in 16 minutes than with yesterday's in 18 minutes, so I guess that's progress.

Rabbit Day 6

We learned shading today. But 18 minutes isn't enough time for me to draw and shade my rabbit; this is as far as I got.

Because I was frustrated in not getting even close to finishing her, I drew her again in another journal without setting the timer. I think I spent 30-40 minutes on her.

Rabbit Day 5

Yesterday was the first day I skipped. I've been drawing at night; I did this one in the morning and may try to do another one tonight to "catch up."

Rabbit Day 4

I'm down to 18 minutes now.

Rabbit Day 3

Rabbit Day 2

Second day of sketching my crocheted rabbit. Still at 20 minutes.

Drawing Class - Rabbit Day 1

I started a drawing class yesterday, and I think I'm really going to like it. The only down side is that it is an hour and 15 minutes from my house, it starts at 9:00 am, and I am not a morning person. But I made it to class on time and loved it.

One of the exercises we were given to do at home was to choose an object to draw, set the timer for 20 minutes, and draw it; then stop when the timer goes off. We are to repeat the exercise 3 days in a row, and on day 4 we are to set the timer for 18 minutes. Throughout the 4 week class, we will continue decreasing the time by 2 minutes every 4th day until we are down to 6 minutes.

I decided to draw a stuffed rabbit that I crocheted many many years ago - and here is my day 1 sketch. I did the whole sketch with a 2B pencil. We haven't learned shading yet - that comes next week. I'm fairly pleased with my first attempt. And I was able to finish it in the time allotted.