How to draw a beautiful cat in watercolor: work progress. Cat in watercolor Drawing of a cat in watercolor

We found and translated for you a wonderful watercolor master class that tells you how to paint beautiful cat.

I am impressed by Liz Shaderton's approach to the choice of composition and the ease of the watercolor solution. Well, the resulting cute portrait of a cat, I think, will inspire you to take up your brushes.

One day I came to the conclusion that working with watercolors requires special forethought. Its success often comes from simplification... What we leave out is just as important as the elements we include in our picture.

I propose to draw a portrait of a cat today. What attracts me to this animal is its marbled look, mustache and patterned color. These are the elements I want to focus on, the rest doesn't matter!

Materials for references

When drawing animals, you will have to use a lot of photographs for the obvious reason that animals tend to be very active. And if they are also wild, they are unlikely to allow you to even get close to them.

Drawing from life in this case is something from the realm of fantasy. Therefore, photographs here can become your “lifeline.”

Please be aware of copyright laws. Not a problem if you're just using photography to draw for fun. But the moment you share it online, display it, or sell it, you may be violating the photographer's rights. In this case, do not use the image without permission from the author.

Luckily, websites such as Paint my Photo(pmp-art.com) and Pixabay(pixabay.com), provide beautiful free images With high resolution. Don't hesitate to ask. Many photographers allow their photos to be used for free.

Work planning

We will carry out the work from light to dark, from background to background. This will allow us to maintain the transparency of the watercolor.

It is important to think through the light areas in advance, because they are the ones that bring the picture to life.

I also like to add shadows to early stages. This way, the area with the greatest contrast (in our case, the eye area) will immediately attract the viewer’s attention.

Do preliminary pencil sketch. It will help you think through the composition and main elements in advance, so that in the future you can fully devote your time to working with color.

A sketch like this helped me figure out that it would be better to reduce the size of the cat's head compared to the original idea.

And also achieve an expressive S-shaped line, conditionally passing between the eyebrows and mustache.

I don't like it when pencil lines are visible in a drawing, so I prefer to erase them with an eraser. If you want to erase the lines, make the original outline of the image a little larger than necessary or use a watercolor pencil.

I took half a sheet (not the square format). This allowed me to adjust the composition even after finishing the drawing.

Drawing with a simple pencil An HB indicating the general dimensions and shape of an object is all you need. Try not to draw details or make the drawing too dark.

Check the correctness of the drawing by looking at it in a mirror or turning it upside down.

Use not large quantity colors will allow your brain to relax. I try to limit my palette to seven colors.

Decide whether you want to use colors from the original image or your own shades. Make blanks of the desired shades before starting work.

Materials used

Watercolor paper:

Bockingford NOT (35x35cm)

Watercolor paints:

French ultramarine
Quinacridone gold
Quinacridone sienna
Emerald phthalo (Phthalo turquoise)
Permanent mars (Perylene maroon)
Dioxine purple

How to draw a beautiful cat in watercolor:
progress

click to enlarge the picture

STEP 1

1. Start with the eye. Let's be honest, if you ruin the eye, the whole portrait won't work.

It's better to do it in the first 5 minutes than to leave it until last, wasting several hours of work...

2. Take a closer look, identify places of light, shadows and shades the right colors. The cat's eyes are like marble.

Leave the required area of paper painted over. In case you have masking fluid, take advantage of it.

Draw the iris around the pupil.

STEP 2

Now move on to the dark areas around the eyes. If some color from the iris flows into the fur area, so much the better. Place your strokes as if you were stroking fur in the direction it grows. This will make your strokes look much more natural.

STEP 3

Using a clean, damp brush, brush off part of the dark layer, creating the S-shaped line that I mentioned at the sketching stage.

Add more characteristic strokes, paint wet on wet.

Pre-moisten the paper in places where you want the stroke to lay more softly.

Remember that the edges dry out faster. Be prepared to soften them to avoid hard edges when representing fur.

STEP 4

Mark the bases of the whiskers while the surface is still wet.

Very lightly touch the nose with Perylene maroon and the far eye. Soften the edges of the chin.

STEP 5

Now work with pale shades on three fronts in turn - under the chin, with the far ear, and then with the near one.

STEP 6

When the basic character of the animal is “captured”, let the work dry.

QUESTION: The image looks somewhat flat.

ANSWER: Is everything okay with the balance of dark and light? If there are errors in tone, then no Beautiful colors will not “save” the job. Squint and look at the picture carefully. Or take a black and white photo of her on your phone. And then adjust by adding color.

QUESTION: The work looks tortured.

ANSWER: Write with a large brush wherever the size of the paper allows. Hold the brush close to the tip and stop when you think there are 10 percent left to finish. You can always make some changes, but removing the excess will be much more difficult.

QUESTION: The colors are dull and lifeless.

ANSWER: If you make changes to a wet layer, the colors may blend and become lifeless. Check also the quality of the materials used. Perhaps you are using amateur paints or cheap paper?

QUESTION: The highlight of the eye is “lost.”

ANSWER: Add a highlight with white gouache. Or, if you're brave enough, use a scalpel to carefully scrape the top layer of paint down to the bottom of the paper. This should be done after complete drying, at the very end of the work.

Now experiment!

Draw the cat again, but use purple or blue as a base, which is not a natural "cat" color.

If you get the tone right, the portrait will still look alive.

Master class with step-by-step photos on drawing a Cat in watercolors for children over 5 years old

Master class with step by step photos: "Every day is not Sunday..."

Author: Natalya Aleksandrovna Ermakova, Teacher, Municipal Budgetary educational institution additional education children "Children's art school named after A. A. Bolshakov”, Velikiye Luki, Pskov region
Description: The master class is intended for children from 5 years old and their parents, educators, and additional education teachers.
Purpose: interior decoration, participation in creative exhibitions, gifts.
Target: creating a composition with a cat using watercolor technique.
Tasks:
-continue to introduce children to folk proverbs, holidays and customs native land;
-learn to draw a cat, practice drawing a sketch using auxiliary lines and geometric figures;
-improve skills in watercolor technique;
- cultivate interest in various visual techniques and materials, a feeling of love and pride for the history and culture of their homeland.

Hello, dear friends and guests!
We all know the Russian proverb: “It’s not all Maslenitsa for the cat...”, it’s about someone who lived too well (undeservedly well), but in the end will face difficulties.
The meaning of the proverb is well explained in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky. "Every day is not Sunday". The old merchant Akhov believed that money makes everything. He began wooing a young, poor girl, thinking that her mother and she would throw themselves at him for his money. Moreover, the badness and stinginess of his character was known to everyone. He demanded attention, so that everyone would bow to him. When he finally came to make a match, he received a decisive refusal. Instead, mother and daughter chose his young clerk, Hippolytus. Sending the old man away, the mother said: “It’s not all Maslenitsa, there’s also Lent,” - this full version Russian proverb, included in the “Dictionary of Russian Proverbs” by Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl. But as an analogue of the proverb, a form practically unknown to contemporaries is given: “It’s not all Maslenitsa for the cat, but it’s Fomin’s Monday.”
Fomin Monday is the second day of Fomin (Radonitskaya) week, the beginning of spring commemorations and a large number of church funeral services, which was assessed by the people as a “grainful” time for priests. Gradually, the second option practically disappeared from everyday speech, but the proverb about the future difficult life We use cats everywhere.

In general, a proverb is a short wise saying, which has an instructive meaning, in proverbs - the people's mind, the people's truth, a wise judgment about life and people. So this proverb: “Not everything is Maslenitsa, there is also Lent,” has its roots. This is the Maslenitsa holiday, and there are three of them in Rus'.
The proverb refers to Christian Maslenitsa, established by the Russian Church in the 16th century, as
7 days religious holiday from Monday to Forgiveness Sunday. On Maslenitsa, the Russian people have fun, eat pancakes and generally do not restrict themselves in anything special. When the time of Lent comes, the picture changes: everyone walks around gloomy and serious, meat is forbidden, and so is entertainment. During seven weeks of food abstinence, you can only eat fish, but very rarely. And here even a foreigner will understand that Maslenitsa symbolizes a favorable time in a person’s life, and Lent symbolizes an unfavorable one. Thus, the expression “not everything is Maslenitsa…” has the following meaning: good luck does not last long, hard times will come. On the other hand, harsh times also do not last forever.

The second Maslenitsa is a folk festival, it begins a day earlier than the church Maslenitsa, and lasts eight days. This is a riotous secular festival-carnival, established by the royal decree of Peter I in the image and likeness of European carnivals.
According to the Decree of Peter 1, the celebration of Maslenitsa began to be called “The All-Joking, All-Drunken and Extravagant Council.” They celebrated in the European style, like carnivals with cheerful processions of mummers, antics of jesters, and abundant festivities. The holiday was led by the clownish “Patriarch” appointed during Maslenitsa, who headed the “all-joking and all-drunk cathedral”...

The real Russian Maslenitsa is the ritual and astronomical holiday of Komoednitsa. It is celebrated strictly from March 21 to March 28 and is dedicated to the day spring equinox. Before the arrival of Christians and forced baptism, Rus' was a strong secular (by modern standards) state. None pagan gods, there was no religion in our homeland. There was veneration of the Russian great ancestors, who were the children of the gods. We, modern Russian people, are the same children.
After Komoednitsa, the day begins to become longer than the night, Yarilo the sun melts the snow, nature awakens with the force of spring, people celebrated the beginning of the New Year according to the ancient Slavic solar calendar (in Rus', until 1492, March opened the account for the New Year).
In addition to celebrating the sacred entry of Spring into its rights, on this day the Slavic Bear God was also revered: in the morning before breakfast, in a solemn procession with songs, dances and jokes, they brought “pancake sacrifices” to the great Honey Beast in the forest with the first baked holiday pancakes and laid them out on stumps. After this, the festive feast began. The ancient Slavs called the bear Kom (hence the rule - “the first pancake is Kom”, that is, bears).

This tale is for you, dear guests, and for children, a master class on drawing a cat watercolor paints. Welcome to our creative workshop!
Materials and tools:
-sheet of A3 paper

Simple pencil
-eraser
-watercolor
-brushes
-cloth for hands and arms
-water jar

Progress of the master class:

We start working on the drawing with a preliminary sketch in pencil (the sketch is done with light lines). At the bottom of the sheet draw a horizontal line for the table. From the right edge of the sheet we draw a rectangle - this will be a stack of pancakes. On the remaining space of the sheet, in the middle, we begin to build the figure of a cat. First we draw a semi-oval for the head, then for the body (as if we were assembling a snowman).

Next, in the form of arcuate lines on each side of the body, draw the legs, then the tail. And we begin to work on the muzzle, we need to divide the oval of the head in half with a vertical line - this will help us draw the details of the cat’s muzzle in proportion. At the bottom we draw two oval cheeks.

Above the cheeks there is a nose and eyes, ears consisting of double triangles. We draw the front legs using circles of different sizes.

Next we start working with watercolors. Let's start with the eyes, use green color. Then we work brown, outline the contour lines of our hero, wash the brush and blur these lines with water (make a smooth transition from the brown to the white background of the sheet). For pancakes we use the same color, very diluted with water.

Make the cheeks and nose pale pink, to do this we apply a red smear and wash it with water, the cat’s tongue will be red.

Draw rows of pancakes with brown horizontal lines. We outline the paws (pads) with brown color, and then blur the color with water. The middle of the ears will also be Brown. And let's start working with orange - draw stripes.

Our whole cat will be a red tabby.

Making the eyes expressive. I use saturated Blue colour, but you can get by with black. We leave the small white circles inside the eyes unpainted, as when working with watercolors White color not used - this is the advantage of gouache.
The next stage of the drawing will be working with brown color: antennae, eyebrows and contour finishing of the entire silhouette of the cat. We draw as if with a trembling hand - we imitate the fur of our hero.
We paint the tablecloth in yellow and shade it brown.

Apply an almost transparent ocher tone to the white surface of the sheet around the design (dilute the color with water), and the work is completed.

For older children, you can offer a more complicated option, complementing the image of the cat with additional elements of the composition. I added a window with curtains, wooden walls and a bowl of sour cream in the background.

Once the pencil sketch is done, we begin to work with color. For the background I chose my favorite and universal color ocher. First, it is applied in a transparent tone to the area of wooden walls and stacks of pancakes (dilute the color with water). Then we put more ocher on the brush and draw the lines of the logs, these lines are slightly blurred with water.

Outside the window you can see the blue sky, my tablecloth is red, and there are already pancakes on the table - we draw them with brown horizontal lines.

I add a few dark brown lines to the pancake design; I use the same color for the bowl of sour cream. We paint the curtains in a light green tone.

Then we draw folds on them with the same, but more saturated color. And we start working with black watercolors - we outline the contour lines of the drawing with it.

Next, rinse the brush, lightly dry it on a cloth and blur these lines.

The cat will be red (orange).

I make green eyes and pink cheeks and a nose as in the first version.
Then we begin to draw the cat in detail using brown color, outline the main details of the figure and carefully blur them with water.

Using a semi-dry brush contour lines We draw a cat and imitate fur (the “poke” technique).

In this lesson we will tell you how to draw a cat's face with watercolor pencils step by step, and we will make the background with watercolors.

Drawing technique - mixed: watercolor pencils, watercolor, thin felt-tip pens for hairs.

1. I make a sketch on watercolor paper.

2. Now you need to carefully wet the part of the paper that will be the background with water.

3. Remove excess water with a wrung out brush.

4. I put a little paint diluted with water on the brush and carefully distribute it over the damp paper.

.
5. Using a brush, you can add watercolors in those places where we want the background to be darker.

6. The background is ready for roughing.

7. Now I put away the watercolors and take watercolor pencils. In principle, I could have taken regular ones, but at that time I only had watercolor ones from the soft ones. I start working on the eyes and nose, always with the lightest color. We will always have time to darken it.

9. To make a cat come to life, I always try to work on the eyes almost immediately.

10. We begin to work on the fur, using thin strokes to follow the growth of the fur.

11. I try to make the stripes according to the shape of the body so that they emphasize the volume.

I draw the fur with thin felt-tip pens.

12. I made the mustache with thin felt-tip pens, leaving no white areas in advance.

13. I darkened it a little under the chin. gray pencil so that there is a shadow.

14. Then I regretted that I had not left my mustache white and decided to try to scratch it out.

I don’t know how well it turned out... But I think I’ve heard about such a technique.

This guide is dedicated to our beloved cat Sammy. He was about 15 years old when we adopted him from a relative, and my son and I became very attached to him. It was 2 years ago. Sammy's mother was my cat when I was a teenager, but I went on an exchange abroad to high school, and my parents got rid of her as soon as I left. My heart was broken, but it felt right that we took Sammy, given his age. I decided to paint him a portrait based on a photograph of him that I really love. A few days after I wrote it, Sammy became deathly ill and retired. This was a few weeks ago. Such a portrait is a good way to leave a memory of a deceased pet, or to capture moments in the life of a pet who is still with you.

Step 1: Materials Needed

Materials:

Watercolor and palette.
Paint Brushes – Make sure you have several brushes for detailed painting.
Pet photo.
Tracing paper, pencil and eraser.
Watercolor paper. Using quality watercolor paper makes a big difference in the final result. It can be purchased one sheet at a time at most hobby shops. For practice, cheaper paper will do just fine; you can buy it there.
Gum arabic (optional). It is used to increase the fluidity of paints and create a glossy shine. It is recommended to mix gum arabic and water in proportions of 10% to 90%, respectively. I also read that when you use it and the paint dries, you can easily return to work, and even remove the area of paint by re-wetting it.
Gouache (optional). Gouache is very similar to watercolor, but more matte. I didn't use gouache in this portrait, but if I lived closer to an art store, I would buy it and use it. I advise you to buy only white - it will be useful when drawing small details of whiskers and fur.

Step 2: Preparing a pet portrait, copying and transferring

Image and paper

First of all, you need to decide how large the portrait you want. If it needs to be larger than what a regular printer can print, you will have to go somewhere that will print everything for you. Also, you will have to cut the watercolor paper to required sizes. Keep in mind that 400 weight paper is quite difficult to cut.

Tracing

I printed out a picture of my pet on a standard size piece of paper. After that, I carefully stuck a piece of tracing paper onto it. I copied the main lines and main details of the cat with a pencil, pressing so that the lines turned out to be quite dark. Of course, if you are good at drawing, you can always try to draw everything yourself, but many artists use the same method. In any case, both methods will work.

Transfer

Now flip your image over so that you can see the back of it. On the back of the tracing paper, you need to shade the places where you have copied lines. You can use a softer or darker pencil if you have one (4B or 6B), but a regular 2B pencil will work fine.

Once you have shaded the areas where you drew the lines, carefully place the tracing paper on the watercolor paper. After this, take your pencil again and draw along the lines drawn on the tracing paper. As you do this, the graphite is transferred from the tracing paper to your watercolor paper. You will also notice small indentations where you traced with the pencil. They won't be too dark, but they will be visible.

The final touch is to again draw a pencil along the already drawn lines, but this time on watercolor paper, and you are ready to start coloring.

First, prepare your paints and palette. Before I had tubes of watercolors, I only had my son's cheap paints for school. It is best to use watercolors in tubes. Be careful not to squeeze out too much. The excellent quality of watercolor is its durability! You only need to squeeze out a tiny amount of paint (about the size of an eraser) onto the palette. back side pencil). Pour water into a large jar or mug and add some onto your palette. You will need a lot of water! If the paint dries on the palette, you can still use it further. Simply dip your brush in water and then move it over the dried paint and you can use it again!

Advice – please remember that with watercolor painting, “less is more.” If you want to leave highlights, be careful where you apply the paint, or leave these areas for later. I didn't overdo the watercolor on the cat's nose and managed to make it look very realistic with highlights in just the right places.

I started with drawing background. When I finished, I didn't like it so much and I went overboard with the paint, repainting it several times. As a result, I ended up with a rather dark background, but I like it. Remember that it is difficult to remove something if the conversation is about watercolors, especially after several redraws.

Pay attention to contrast. This is what will make your drawing alive and close to reality. It is not necessary to circle all the lines several times and highlight every part of your pet. Just if your pet’s fur is white, making the background darker will help great idea. Once I finished the basics of my background, which I then changed anyway, it was time to draw the eyes.

For the eyes I used a layer of yellowish orange and around it I painted with a darker one. orange. I'll come back later to finish them.

Step 4: Painting Dark Areas and Main Details

Then I started painting over the main details of the face. You need to paint a thin layer, or a very thinned layer of paint, over the main areas. All you have to do is add a lot of water for a certain color and look very carefully at the photo of your pet to understand where exactly its color matches this color.

I initially applied a thin layer of gray paint to the cat's body. Then, I started adding details on him and on the body using the same gray (slightly darker) color. If there are shadows in your photo, then draw them as you see them. You may think: “No, this is too much, I won’t be able to draw this,” but don’t listen to those bad thoughts, just draw what you see. Leave the areas where you want the white color untouched. Blank paper is the best white color.

When all the most basic colors are painted over, go back to the face and go over a thin layer of paint again, but this time less diluted (look at the photo!). You don't need to go into fur details for the time being. As you paint, you can smooth out the corners by dipping a clean brush in water and gently running it over the problem areas.

Step 5: Fluffy Details

Once the main colors have been applied and some details have been drawn in, you can start working on the fur. In the photos you can see that I started drawing the fur from the dark areas on the face. Using much less water, I was able to create a matte effect. This is all done with the help of a linear brush. I made small stripes in the direction of hair growth. When you first take it on, you might look at it and think you're doing something wrong. This is fine. You really need to keep going until the coat looks just right. Once you've progressed a little, it helps a lot to step back a few meters and look at the drawing from that distance - the difference is huge.

On last photo you may notice that the area of the head between the ears looks straight and stiff. It doesn't look real at this stage of drawing because in reality the fur grows in different sides, but does not lie so perfectly and evenly. Once we continue drawing layers of fur, everything will fall into place.

Step 6: Draw the fur on the body

When I drew the fur on the body, I first looked at the photo to notice the darkest areas. Basically, you can save a lot of time if you just don't do it. I really liked how everything looked before, but once I started, there’s no turning back!

First, I painted dark spots on the cat's belly. Then, I went back and added a little water to this area to lighten the drawing a little (I made this area too dark). Then I looked at the photograph again to understand where the fur on the abdomen lies and in which direction it grows, and I drew it.

I'm having a little problem with the image white fur on the stomach, and this is where gouache would be very useful.

Look at your drawing and compare it with what is shown in the photo to match all the details. Looking at the photo, find the darkest areas! And make sure you convey them in your drawing. The eyes will stand out if you add contrast to them and draw lines where needed.

Mustaches can be a challenge because you want to get them right the first time. There's no need to rush. Practice, practice and practice again before you start! You'll need a good line brush for this! Make sure you apply enough paint and water to the brush so that it moves smoothly and unhindered.

At the end, don't forget to make sure that you have drawn all the shadows that are on the original. For example, under the cat's head in my drawing the green is darker in some places. This is done in order to depict the shadow of his head. This approach will bring your drawing closer to reality.

Take a closer look at all the folds and add wool there, avoid straight folds (except for the ears). Draw what you see.

I hope this guide helps you write beautiful portrait pet!

Cats are one of the cutest and funniest creatures on the planet. The animal has perfectly adapted to living next to humans, just like a dog, so almost every person has a cat at home. Many novice artists will be very interested in drawing a cat in watercolor, so we have created a step-by-step photo guide that will help you draw a pet.

The level of difficulty of such work is considered average, because depicting any animal is quite difficult. In drawing, you need to make a sketch accurately and realistically in order to convey the animal’s pose as best as possible. Beginners especially have difficulty with a plot in which the animal needs to be depicted in motion. But we specially selected for drawing simple composition, which will simplify the task. So let's get started.

Let's prepare the necessary tools for work:

palette of watercolor paints;
high-density paper for watercolor painting;
pencil HB or N;
eraser (it is advisable to use a soft one so as not to damage the paper structure);
soft brushes (kolin, synthetics) No. 3 and 1;
flat brush for wetting the paper;
palette;
a glass of clean water;
paper or textile napkin.

Drawing stages

Step 1. We start by marking the approximate outline of the drawing with a pencil. We draw the head in a circle, the body as a teardrop-shaped figure, draw a pair of triangular ears, and mark the paws and tail of the cat with several lines.

Using these auxiliary lines we draw a detailed outline of the animal. Then we finish drawing small parts: nose, eyes.

The sketch is ready, remove the saturation of the pencil with an eraser and move on to the next step - underpainting.

Step 2. Dilute the gray paint with water so that the paint becomes translucent. And use it to outline the color of the animal, as shown in the photo. Use pale blue watercolor to highlight the shading on the front legs.

Step 3. Now we paint the inside of the ears and face with translucent pink quinacridone. Let's highlight the eye color with a mixture of turquoise and blue shades.

Step 4. We return to the color again and give it contrast. We stretch the strokes on the head in lines to milk realistic effect. On the chest we draw the folds of fur in detail. We saturate the shaded front and hind legs with a pale blue tone.

Step 5. Using brush number 1 and neutral black, draw the outline of the ears, eyes and pupils. We wash off almost all the paint from the brush and use the remnants of black watercolor to highlight the nose, the line of the mouth and the dots on the cheeks.

Step 6. Next, use umber and neutral black to refine the intensity of the color. Using turquoise we create a light shadow on the cat’s body.

Using the same shades we create a falling shadow.

Step 7. To make the plot more interesting, add one bright detail - a ball of thread. We will use pink and burgundy shades, and to indicate the shadow and draw the texture of the threads, we will take a little umber.