art blog (mostly cats)

ive observed when drawing a cat with extra fat, its easy to lose the form and have it look like a balloon animal. if you keep bony landmarks and silhouette in mind as you caricature this can be avoided. these landmarks are places like joints, the spine, some points of the ribcage, and certain bones in the face.

the joints are where you "break" the silhouette of the figure. these are essential to a strong drawing and selling the volume of your character. interpreting the contrast of straights and curves around the figure will give a visual rhythm and prevent your drawing from appearing stiff and lifeless. some inner descriptive lines in places where muscle, fur, skin and fat are more obvious create a more defined shape that can really add something extra if you find your drawing is appearing too flat.

selling the markings by having them follow the contours of the body will also really help in making sure your drawings come across as volumetric. its easy to slap them on as an afterthought, but copy pasted looking markings can totally ruin the illusion of your characters dimension!

this of course is all relative to your own goals when drawing a piece, if you want your art to be flat and graphic, go for it! i will say it always helps my design sense to understand how things work in a 3d space before i get really abstract with them. the more you can understand your subject the easier it is to find success with the end goal of your piece.

recently ive been studying art again more seriously, really looking at where i was lacking and doing studies, reading a lot of art theory and reference books, life drawing, everything i can. getting better at grouping shapes, values, focusing on clarity of silhouette, simplifying information, have all become my priority. i really try to think the entire time im drawing now instead of going on autopilot. so even revisiting drawing cats occasionally, now feels new as im doing it with a new mindset/perspective on what i want to achieve. i tend to practice drawing 6-8 hours a day but the goal of where i want my ability to be still feels so impossibly far away.

i havent animated very much at all in the past year, and im trying to rekindle my love and drive for it, it scratches an itch in me that drawing never does. over the years of being a lonely teenager who tied their self worth to their online art presence, my self esteem was linked to how well i could perform artistically any given day eventually lead to me crashing and burning mentally. i could not animate without significant stress and feeling like i was going to throw up because i knew the end product wouldnt satisfy me. so i avoided doing it for almost a year.

i know a lot of younger artists follow me and its easy to fall into this trap, esp with how competitive it is and the incentive of social media attention. but it will make you miserable, and upset. even know i have to repeat to myself "its ok to make bad drawings" and that comparing myself to others has no purpose. this sounds overly dramatic since a lot of you know me as a former warrior cats animator, but ever since i made animation my career this thought process became increasingly difficult to escape and would affect my performance at work sometimes. i got a job working with dogs for a while since i didnt want to have the mental toll of doing professional work anymore. im trying to get back in the game now, almost reteaching myself art in a way. and ive been feeling a lot better.