Mimi Watching From the Window

Mimi Watching From the Window

We were out playing boardgames with friends for the whole day, but I did get a chance to sit and do this sketch of one of their cats, Mimi, looking out the window. I loved the silhouette of the cat against the light from the window. I used this these Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons for the sketch.

You draw a bit like you would with crayon, and then go back over it with water and it softens out to look like watercolor. You can add more crayon over top of that for texture if you want, too. The one thing I noticed is that the drawing made (at least by me) with these things tend to be pretty soft - not a great way of getting hard edges or details. So I ended up going into some of the detail on the cat with a fountain pen and some ink to tighten up the focal point. These are always a lot of fun - I need to bring them out a bit more often. I'm sure there's much more to learn with them, and I just haven't put in the hours to get there yet. But I guess today was a step in that direction. And it kept me a bit cleaner than I might otherwise be - only stains on me today are chocolate stains!

-ZR