The Sunday Spread: October 28, 2023
Hi there. How are you?
Welcome to the second installment of my new blog series, The Sunday Spread. Each week I’ll give you a glimpse into my sketchbook, sharing what I’ve been working on along with some insights into my drawing practice.
This week’s sketchbook spread was created over a 2 week span. My drawing time was severely diminished by a cat war….
Cleo (pictured below) and Richard (our orange boy) were startled by a loud jet flying over our house. In seconds, they became mortal enemies. Hissing, growling, violence. It was awful.
This happened once before, but they were friends again in an hour or so. This standoff lasted all week. We had to keep them separated. We were miserable, they were miserable.
A friend who has had feuding cats for THREE YEARS (I don’t know how they do it), suggested we try a diffuser. I brought one home the next day, plugged it in, and waited.
The next morning, I opened the basement door to let Cleo come up for breakfast. Richard was right behind me. There was no hissing, or growling. They just stared at each other for a while and then both proceeded to eat their breakfast. I let them coexist while I got ready for work, and they kept the peace.
I separated them again when I left for work, just to be safe. I’m happy to report that they’ve signed a peace treaty and are once again coexisting without violence. They’ve never been the best of friends, but as least I’m not fearing what I’ll come home to when I leave the house!
So, back to my sketchbook.
Complementary Colors
I was in the mood for some color, so I pulled out my Bic Cristals and my Stillman & Birn sketchbook. I started in the middle with the orange and an aqua blue.
I got a little bit frustrated the way they were laying down on the paper. I’ve found that the more exotic colors like the orange and aqua don’t flow as well as the standard red, blue, black, and green Bic pens do. I suspect that’s why those were the only colors you could find in ballpoints for quite a while.
Instead of abandoning this spread, I fell back on my favorite blue Parker Jotter pen and started working around the existing drawing. I think I’ve been spoiled by the Parkers pens. The ink is the ultimate in smoothness!
This is how I left it after a week of working on this page over many nights of couch drawing.
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The Finished Spread
I spent a good number of hours couch drawing yesterday (Saturday) with some very tired cats, finishing up this spread. It was another traumatic day for them as we had a new roof put on the house yesterday. I corralled them in the basement where we watched many hours of cat YouTube. (Yes, my cats watch TV). Richard can watch birds and squirrels for hours.
By the time the roofers were done, they were exhausted, and I could dive into my sketchbook. I was relaxed, so the drawing just poured out of me.
I’m really into those seed/braided forms at the moment. Would you be interested in seeing how I do that if I made a tutorial? Do let me know.
That’s all for now.
I leave you with a picture of Richard, in his current perch on the couch, next to me as I type this.
Chris and I are so relieved the war has ended!
