Black Cat Evolution

October 24, 2015 · by karencomics · in Cats, Ink, Inktober. ·

I’m on a roll with these black cats that I’m doing for Inktober. I’m really enjoying the challenge of trying to capture the sheen of their fur, and the intense look in their eyes. Here’s one I did a couple of days ago that I scanned several stages of so you can see what I was doing.

Here’s the initial ink drawing, done with my trusty Pentel brush-pen. I absolutely love this tool; it can make the finest of hair-thin lines or big expressive thin-to-thick-to-thin-again strokes, and it’s good for covering black areas to a certain extent, though if trying to cover a large area, it’s kind of slow.

I decided to try using markers to get a more even gradation in the grey areas and speed things up a bit from the crosshatching. I used Prismacolor double-ended markers, in cool greys, 10%, 30%, 50%, and 70%, because that's what I have (must stock up the in-between ones, I love them so much!). I used a black Prismacolor marker for the background, because it was a lot to cover with the Pentel brush. Unfortunately the coverage isn't as even, but I decided that was OK as it gave a bit of texture. (I'm very good at rationalizing these things!)

I decided to try using markers to get a more even gradation in the grey areas and speed things up a bit from the crosshatching i had been doing on the previous black cat drawings. I used Prismacolor double-ended markers, in cool greys, 10%, 30%, 50%, and 70%, because that’s what I have (must stock up the in-between ones, I love them so much!), working from lightest to the darkest, which was black. I also used the black Prismacolor marker for the background, because it was to much to cover with the Pentel brush. Unfortunately the coverage isn’t as even, but I decided that was OK as it gave a bit of texture. (I’m very good at rationalizing these things!)

Now for some fur textures; I used a Pigma Micron .03 pen for that, stroking both to create fur and to even out the marker gradations. This is as far as I took the drawing in physical form…

… but I wanted to see what the moon and the eyes would look like in colour, so I tried Photoshop and was very happy with the results. I’m thinking of making a print of this.

Bonus cat! Tonight I decided to see if I could do a spooky white cat, and this was the result. The background is spooky — not so sure about this friendly looking puss! Although she does look as if she might know some magic…

I used the Pentel brush-pen for the black, and the cool grey markers for the greys. Thinking about colouring the eyes in this one, but it's hot of the drawing board, so haven't yet.

I used the Pentel brush-pen for the black, and the cool grey markers for the greys, and signed it with a Jelly Roll gel pen. Thinking about colouring the eyes in this one, but it’s hot off the drawing board, so haven’t yet.