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Best of Watercolor Summer 2022 Digital Edition 
Paint Along 119: The Art of Painting Still Lifes 
Breakthrough Paint Along: How to Paint Miniature Landscapes in Oils 
The Whimsical Face with Jane Davenport Video Download 
Breakthrough Paint Along: Essentials of Painting Portraits 
Paint Along 120: Capturing the Colors of Dusk and Dawn 
Southwest Art February/March 2025 Digital Edition 
Watercolor Artist Spring 2025 Digital Edition 
Drawing Together Episode 20: Fur Real?!
this episode is Part of the Drawing Together live video series – learn more here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLzz8wqMu8c&ab_channel=ArtistsNetwork
Today, we tackle the internet’s favorite subject: Cats! I’ll draw a cat. But not just any cat! This one has unbelievable fur and eyes. Follow along using this reference image: https://bit.ly/2xkIQId
Today, I’m working with:
- Toned drawing paper
- Charcoal Pencil
- Vine Charcoal
- Compressed Charcoal Stick
- White Charcoal Pencil
- Kneaded and Rubber Erasers
In this session, we’ll cover:
- How to draw realistic fur
- Drawing a cat
- Drawing cat eyes
- Shading techniques
- Creating texture
- Managing detail
Hello. I’ve just begun your drawing lessons. I drew the cat Odin on 9×12 toned Strathmore paper with charcoal. This is the third lesson I’ve watched. I enjoy your teaching style. I haven’t drawn in so long and really avoided using charcoal in the past because I really didn’t know how to use it. After watching you and trying it I’ve found I quite enjoy the medium! I look forward to trying more of your lessons. Thank you.
I also had a request for you to do a demonstration or instruction about using a fixative for your finished drawings. Any tips would be helpful. in the past I’ve ruined finished drawings when the spray has left drips. 🙁
This is a great depiction of Odin!
I have some work to do on Odin the cat. I love Odin and wish I could draw him better.
Glad to be practicing cat faces. Still have a ways to go.
Of all the drawings, this was one of my favorites.
I loved drawing Odin. Thank you, Scott
Here’s my version of Odin! Took me a long time to get the eyes. They may be too far apart
The whiskers made me happy. Thanks Scott!
Trying to catch up with previous episodes… I don’t have white charcoal yet, but I intend to get asap. Love the effect of it on the cat! I had to suggest the eyebrows and whiskers rather than negative drawing them, but oh well. Next time it’ll be better. Thank you for your guidance and suggestions. You’re awesome, Scott! As to suggestions about subjects, I’d like to see more human images. I’m a wood carver and can relate a lot to the human form. Thanks again!
Fun drawing with you. I have improved a lot since finding you. Thank you so much
Here’s my cat drawing. I didn’t have toned paper and so did it the usual way by darkening the background with charcoal.
This was fun, only my second drawing in charcoal. These tutorials are wonderful and explained so well. I would highly recommend, I feel that I am learning a lot. A golden retriever would be a fun project too!
Thanks for the lesson, I had to first order charcoal and this is one of my first times working with them.
Don’t really like cats too much but I think Odin turned out okay lol.
Fluffball
I really like the Conte pencil. I was thinking abut trying that in one too!
Thanks Scott your opinion means a lot to me. I just started to draw 40 days ago at the age of 45 :). This pandemic in Italy forced us to stay at home and having more time I tried some drawings and pastel paintings and enjoyed it. I am happy with my progress, even tough still a long way to go
Wonderful work here. Thank you for sharing! With regards to sharpening your pencil, Are you using a razor blade or a mechanical sharpener? I find that a razor blade is a bit more effective. Also, having a piece of sandpaper available can be helpful! Looking at this drawing though, it looks like you’re doing a great job keeping your pencil sharp!
Thanks from Italy. Great tutorial and looking forward to see more (my suggestion is for New York cityscape or another city). For this lesson I used same paper in a smaller format and white pastel pencil instead of white charcoal. My biggest struggle is with sharpening the charcoal pencil
Thank you so much, Scott!
Beautiful! The light, texture, expression, all are tremendous!
You captured the eyes and texture beautifully! Thank you for sharing this!
Wonderful! Thank you for sharing this. The conte looks great!
Great job controlling the values here. Very nice mark-making, too. Thank you for sharing!
Very nice work! Thank you for sharing it. You’ve captured the texture beautifuly!
I used a Conte pencil. I had trouble getting the white charcoal to show up in the whiskers. Thanks for the videos.
This was fun, I enjoyed the fur! I didn’t quite get his eye shape and spacing correct… he looks a little mean. Lol.
I wish I had vine charcoal when I did this but I think it came out pretty good anyway.
Thought I attached in the last comment.
Hope I captured my love of cats. Really enjoyed doing this, it makes me super excited. This was my 2nd try.
Thanks for posting that here, Irene! It looks great!
Thanks, Karen! I’ll keep an eye out for sheep to use as a reference. I like the idea!
Thanks, Dave! I’ll put that on the list!
The light in this looks great! -Scott
I got the eyes a little wonky. So the title is Inbred Cat.
I’m not a big cat person so it was challenging, I usually draw dogs. I couldn’t get the left eye to cooperate with me, so it looks a bit off.
Suggestion for future class. Possibly a riverscape with a focus on how to capture the effect of moving water.
Thanks
Dave
Really enjoyed the cat lesson and will try it. The Alpaca drawing sure sounds fun and how about a sheep or two?
Karen Richardson
Really good lesson, Fur Real. Used a new sketch pad, small size, gray toned. Odin is adorable.