THE UNCOMPLICATED CAT



    A guided lesson in drawing animals

    MATERIALS NEEDED
      drawing pencil
      Eraser
      Paper

    OBJECTIVES
      Reduce a figure to its simples shapes
      Give this figure emotion


    DIRECTIONS
    STEP 1 Think about all the cats you have ever known - both big and small. What do all cats have it common?

    Write down as many "cat describing" words as you can.

    Did you put down four legs, pointed ears, big eyes and sharp claws. Do all cats have short hair or do some have long hair that gets all over everything?

    You might ask yourself the following questions:

      What color are cats?
      Do cats have long legs?
      Are the feet of a cat big or small?

    STEP 2 Think of a cat as a combination of geometric shapes.
    To begin you might make a circle for the head and put two small triangles on the top for ears. Draw a cat using geometric shapes and lines. It might look like this. You have just thought about what makes a cat unique among other animals. Now think about how a cat feels and how it behaves. A cat can have many moods just like we do. Cats can be lazy creatures, hunters, or angry beasts.

    Think of how the cat you have just drawn would look if it were scared and angry or happy and tired.

    STEP 3 As an artist you are going to draw a cat in different moods. What could you do to it to make your cat look angry? Would you draw hair all over it sticking out? Would you arch its back? Would you widen its eyes? What would you do to make it look contented? Would you draw it all curled up in a ball with its eyes closed?

    You can draw any creature just by thinking about it as a set of simple geometric shapes. When you have your basic shape then just add the other characteristics that make it unique.




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