Let me get this out of the way early on, this is only how I draw cats. It isn?t the best way around, and everyone has their own way of doing things. If you disagree with me on any of this, it doesn?t mean I think you?re doing it wrong it just means you do this differently than me. Now that we have that over with, pick your character! I like to read over the description again and pick out key personality traits and parts of their appearance to highlight. While color and expression are very important, don?t underestimate the role of pose when drawing a character, chose something that appears natural but be sure you bring some of their personality into it. Spottedshell is a shy but curious and kind cat with a dull golden tabby pelt with darker spots along her back. I gave her a very passive position, just sitting down looking off at something. Also, this is easy. I won?t lie, I?m not very good at action poses, so most of the drawings I do publish are cats sitting around looking at something. To deal with this, I try to bring more personality into how they are sitting and what they are looking at (off the edges of the piece? Directly at the viewer?). 1. Planning. I usually do this in two or three layers, all of different bright colors. Here I did it in two, in red than in blue. First, I like to draw a line through around where their spine would be to help guide where the limbs would fall. Next, I draw four circles. One for the head, one of the chest and two for the hind legs. Depending on the position, the number of circles tends to change and legs may be done as lines instead. I usually add an eye to anchor the face, as I did here. For the blue, I add more dimension to the face and body, and draw an arrow where the character is looking. 2. Messy Line Art. This is usually the last layer done in a bright color, another one chosen to be clear against the others. I go through and plan out where everything is, leaving out some of the details. This layer shouldn?t take very long, and should be fairly messy. It?s only so where you know where everything is, you?ll perfect it once you get to the next step. 3. Line Art! This, in my opinion, is the most important step and the hardest to get right. You must trace neatly over the messy line art, making sure that your lines are consistent and attractive. If it doesn?t look right, don?t be afraid to erase and try again, I usually draw every single line two or three times before getting it perfect. The quick way to do this is to keep one hand on your tablet pen drawing and the other resting on Ctrl+Z (I highly suggest changing your keyboard shortcut from Ctrl+Alt+Z to go backwards a few steps). Good luck. 4. Base pelt color. Simple enough, what color is your character? What I usually do is select the area inside of my cat and just draw inside that, so I don?t have to go back and clean up the edges later. 5. Fur texture. This step looks a lot harder than it is, as it takes me maybe two minutes to do if I?m going slow. How, you ask? A fur brush! This brush is a life saver, it is probably my favorite brush out of the several hundred I keep. Ivory showed the set to me about a year ago, you can download them at http://danluvisiart.deviantart.com/art/My-Brush-Pack-118954791?q=favby%3Azodiacunicorn%2F50389186&qo=420 . I would highly suggest downloading them if you are on Photoshop, all of the brushes in the set are fantastic. 6. Markings. This is another challenging step if you haven?t done a lot of cat markings before, but don?t be afraid! Find the marking color and paint with that solid on a SEPARATE layer above the base pelt and fur texture, once you have that finished play with the blending mode until you find one that shows the texture below with the new color. On this I used multiply, but I often use overlay or soft color. Once you have found one you like, find your hair brush from the pack I gve you above and use the smudge tool at around 40%, running with the grain of the fur to make it look a bit more natural along the main fur texture. 7. Details. Eyes, nose, ear fluff, scars, claws, whiskers, etc. On this I just did the ears, nose and eyes, as I usually skip the whiskers and didn?t want to bring any attention to her claws. Don?t forget to add a little bit of shine to their eyes (or more, for a more stylized look) or they may look a little bit zomebie-ish. 8. Shadows! Don?t use black, unless you want a murky feel to it. Use a dark blue/purple/green/brown/whatever. On this I used a dusty brown, to go with the warmer colors of her pelt. I have shown it with both the pelt and without the pelt layer, so you can see where exactly I put it. 9. Background. Go as plain or as detailed as you want! I like to reflect the character?s clan or personality in the background (ex. Fawndapple gets flowers, Emberstar gets a thick forest, Patchface gets a dark brick wall, Laurelpaw gets grass and an open sky, Lily gets plain pink.) In most cases you don?t want to leave it white, as it will leave your piece looking unfinished or just be too startling. There?s no shame in a more plain background, just choose a color or pattern that doesn?t distract from the subject. On this I chose a color to match her eye and the reed pattern since she is in DawnClan, leaving it fairly plain so it wouldn?t distract from her.

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