Drawing Manon

Lately I've been working harder on trying to draw Manon from life. In spite of the fact that I've been drawing cats since the mid-1980s, I've never found it easy. There's something about their anatomy that's hard to capture; maybe there's so much fluff covering their skinny little bodies and skeletons that it's hard to see the underlying structure, and you end up with something that looks like a lumpy bag of fur. They move a lot, even when asleep. I also used to get the proportions wrong. A cat's head is actually quite small compared to their body, and I often drew it too large. Manon is a small cat, only 8 pounds. The fact that she's three-colored also complicates things when working in black-and-white.

It's been going better lately, especially when she's asleep. Above is the most recent effort, from the past weekend. Here's a detail:

And here are two other recent drawings:

Here are a couple of much older drawings, from a sketchbook in 2011, not long after she came to live with us. Doing quick gesture drawings of animals, as well as people, is a big help -- I should do more of that now.

Manon is at least 15 now, and a year ago in March we almost lost her. She bounced back, with the help of our brilliant vet, Julie*, who prescribed tiny doses of prednisone every other day. She's regained all the weight she had lost, and has had a good year. It seems like she wants to be around us all the time, even more than before, and is very affectionate while also maintaining her feline independence - as much as possible for an indoor cat. She's still pretty playful and energetic, even though she sleeps more, and she continues to be more vocal in her attempts to communicate. I never tire of watching her - to me, cats embody beauty and grace, as well as having the appeal of all their inherent quirkiness. We cherish every day with her, and I'm sure that's motivating my desire to draw and paint her while she's still with us. I must admit that photographs do a better job of showing her true personality, though -- this is a cat with a big presence! How fortunate we were to have ended up with such a companion, totally by chance.

*our vet is Dr Julie Bereza at Baker Animal Hospital in Montreal - I can't recommend this clinic enough

Comments

[Sharyn]

Hi Beth,
My Ramona and brother Harper will be 19 Feb 5th. They sleep a lot and Ramona has become very vocal and wants to be with us all the time. Harper has his schedule, he watches tv with us every night.
They are wonderful companions.

[Roderick Robinson]

Cats have a number of facial expressions: smug (frequently recurring), accusatory, weighed down by the prospect of sleep, comically enhanced anger accompanied by spitting from the back of the throat, and "I am now about to be mischievous". Plus genuine fear immediately after seeing I had just taken up my trumpet. We no longer have a cat so the latter expression is truly in abeyance; I would like to check a cat's reaction to my rendering of "An die Musik" - a most uncatlike song - but the opportunity seems improbable.

[am]

There's something about cats that I find reassuring. Your drawings of Manon are reassuring. I miss my cat whose name was Oboe. Now and then I tried to draw her when she was asleep.