Sketch of a cat named Ellie in ballpoint pen and India ink

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Ellie the cat. Sketch in pen and india inkI got a request from The Florida Furkids to draw one of the cats – I picked this great photo of Ellie the cat yawning (or meowing?)
I’ve been wanting to learn to draw for a long time, and before starting drawing every day back in September 2014, I’ve given it a shot once in a while without really sticking to the habit. Looking back in a sketchbook from 2012, I see that i tried to draw a polar-bear at some point.. With a black ballpoint pen. He ended up looking like an oil-rig-accident. More black than white. I’ve had a slight trauma for white fur-animals ever since 😉
But here’s Ellie. She’s a very white cat, and I went ahead and tried with a black ballpoint pen. I think it went okay this time. Perhaps drawing white subjects with black drawing tools is a good way of learning to cut the drawing down to the essentials.A few lines go a long way, and just drawing a few lines at the hair-tips, sort of gives the impression of a big fluffy coat of fur. I think this was a nice experiment. Now the next question will be if it can somehow be turned around to draw a black cat with the same degree of fluffiness in a similar way? Maybe I’ll leave that idea simmer another three years 😉

I hope you like the drawing!
That was my 446th.

28 thoughts on “Sketch of a cat named Ellie in ballpoint pen and India ink”

        • For me, the best motivation has been to make a “rule” out of drawing every day. Even if it’ll just be a stick figure. It really rarely feel like a chose in fact. It’s been imminently helpful also to just post everything i do.. I get loads of encouragement from commenter, and i know that there are people out there who keep an eye out for my daily posts, and this makes it even harder to skip a day.. I think that this “daily drawing online” idea has made all the difference for me in terms of motivation .

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          • fantastic! Good luck with that! I’m looking forward to seeing your work 🙂 We’re a couple of people posting our daily drawings to reddit.com/r/onedrawingdaily .. It’s not that active, but I’d like to get a little more buzz in there.. anyway, if you want, come post your drawings in there!

    • I’m waiting for a polar-bear owner to request that i do a drawing of their pet-polar-bear that they blog about.. But It’s mostly been cats so far ;).. Maybe I should go out and find a polarbear myself!

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  4. We know Ellie and think you did a great job capturing her in your drawing….. she’s a gorgeous and fluffy cat and highlighting with ink all around her was the perfect accent to show off her “floof” !!

    Pam

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  12. Our Mauricio is so sad that you didn’t pick Ellie’s sister Allie to draw as that is his girlfriend, but I have to say, I think you did a superb job on Ellie. You really did well in getting her fluffiness.

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