13 Cats

When I was little I would grab a stack of Zoo Book magazines and draw animals like a xerox machine. I tried it again, for fun! I made a couple rules: no sketching, no pencil, no erasers! Just the pure adrenaline of drawing with pen.

After years developing a style as a chalk artist, and then in watercolor, it was interesting to revert to my young way of drawing with precise detail. I had to remind my eye and hand how to think spatially, moving from tiny detail to tiny detail.

Symmetry!

While drawing these cats I was awed by their unique nose, eye and ear shapes, as well as their face shapes, textures and markings.

One of the trickiest parts (that you don't really notice) is the whiskers. Drawing the negative space around them on the face, then the thin dashes that decide where they end. Thats where I would hold my breath!

and then..... ta da!

13 Cats

Top from left: Jaguar, Pallas's cat, puma,
Serval, lion, Caracal, Sand cat,
lynx, Margay, Tiger,
Black panther, Cheetah, Flat headed cat.

I submitted this to a Minted challenge, but alas, it didn't place. 
A couple days before I finished this piece our second issue of National Geographic arrived with an article called, 'Shadow Cats.' The text said, 'Shy and rarely seen, the world's small wildcats are experts at avoiding attention. Most remain little studied and get scant support. Eclipsed by their larger cousins, they deserve their day in the sun.'

I sure enjoyed studying their little faces!