Drawing Lab | One

The Assignment | Unit 1 Lab 1: Draw Cats in Bed

The task was to draw 30 cats from memory while sitting in bed. Why? So we loosen up, already! After completing the task, we could opt to take it further. For this task, I’m including Kate’s blatent disregard for the “instructions”, my strict (stiff) adherence to the “rules” and my mom’s interpretation of “taking it further”. Be sure you scroll down to see it, you’ll be glad you did!

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Artist 1: Kate (age 5)

Kate drew one cat. When I asked her why she didn’t draw 30 cats as the book instructed, she informed me that:

I know how to draw a cat in my bed. It is my bedroom and I know exactly what it looks like. I drew my kitty from memory. I just had to think about Gramma Mim’s cat. The hardest part was the body, but I figured it out. The easiest part was the picture on the wall because I stare at it every night when I fall asleep. I like my cat because the eyes look real. I wouldn’t draw anything different because it turned out perfect.

Who am I to argue with that logic? Upon closer inspection, I noticed her cat’s eyes are very different from her signature style. I realize now, she did take the task seriously and made great effort to create a realistic drawing of a cat sitting on her bed.

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Artist 2: Angie (me)

I began working from memory when I quickly realized my cats looked like dogs. See cats 1, 4, 18, and 23. I’m a cat person who magically transformed into a dog person when I had kids. I’ve spent many, many hours drawing cartoon dogs for the kids so I blamed them for my initial frustration. (I have no explanation why Cat 10 looks like a chameleon).

I kept at it because we were having a grand time sitting in bed, wearing our snuggling jammies and drawing. My son Jack even joined in. This was completely unexpected because he never draws. He hated his cats, so he switched to drawing “future Muppets”.

In the book, Carla suggests if we are feeling stiff to switch to our non dominant hand, which I did beginning with #23. At that point, I felt the stress of my personal expectations melt away and I began to enjoy the assignment. To my surprise, my favorite cats were numbers 24 through 27 – all drawn with my left hand!

I’ve included all my cats to show their natural evolution. They began stiff, cartoonish and dog-like and finished as fluid cats. I almost can’t believe it!

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Artist 3: Janet (Gramma Mim)

I found the greatest difficulty in this exercise was tuning out the left side of my brain - to stop thinking about what to draw, how to draw it, why doesn’t the rendition on the paper even remotely resemble the vision in my head. I also experienced technical difficulties when my Sharpie kept skipping and I ran out of paper. This was making me tense!  When I employed my non-dominant hand I was pleasantly surprised that the cats were more whimsical and my tension eased.  The left side of my brain was now thinking, how do I hold this flippin’ Sharpie in my useless, non-dominant hand, instead of holding the right side hostage, freeing its creativity. Once the left side had been distracted, my dominant hand was re-employed and, voila! Cats!

I’m including a drawing she took a step further. She redrew one of her initial sketches, scanned it and added color in Adobe Illustrator. You can see her whole assignment, including her “lesson learned” on her blog.

Next week’s assignment is Unit 1 Lab 2 | Blind Contour Giraffes

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The Drawing Lab is a weekly linkup inspired by Carla Sonheim’s book Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists. Each Thursday, I post drawings from three generations of my family, my mom, myself and my 5 year old daughter.

You are welcome to play along! Share your drawing and a brief recap of your process, positive or negative. Post your work on your blog or on Flickr.

Please remember, this is raw creativity. Our drawings won’t be perfect or gallery ready, instead they will be an organic starting place for the artist inside each of us. For more about this series, check out my kickoff post. Happy drawing! Angie

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