This is a pen and charcoal drawing of my cat Hobbes. I drew it shortly after she passed away in 2022.

I really like the pen and charcoal style, and I’m surprised people don’t use it more often. Charcoal is good for making lifelike pictures, whereas pen makes things look more cartoony. I find that they compliment each other in an interesting way.

A problem with images is that they can’t capture motion, which is a big component of expressing emotion. I find that a pen outline gives the appearance of motion, especially if it is made up of wavy, discontinuous lines. Then I use charcoal to fill in the rest of the image, which makes it look more realistic. So in a weird way, pen and charcoal looks more cartoony than straight charcoal, but also can look more realistic at the same time.

I’ve never done much photography, and I’ve found that animals are particularly difficult to take pictures of since they are not able to pose for pictures. However I was able to get a couple good pictures of Hobbes that I thought turned out well. The image below is the one I based my drawing off of. I could tell Hobbes was coming towards the end of her life, so I started taking more pictures of her last year. I just happened to have my phone in my hand when I was petting her. I tried taking several more pictures after this one, but all I got were pictures of her trying to bite my hand.

The rest of these pictures were taken years ago while she was still in good health. This was another candid one where I was in the right place at the right time. I really like the lighting and the angle (I was sitting on the couch while she laid in the sun).

Me and my brother used to play a lot of board games, and Hobbes would always commandeer the boxes while we were playing. I would like to draw a picture of one of these some day. I think I prefer the Catan one better. Either way, I need to work on my color pencil skills before I can do it justice. I have found that pen and colored pencils produce a similar effect to what I previously described with pen and charcoal.

I think the box will be most difficult to draw. I think manmade objects are difficult because they are created with such precision. If any part of the box is off (i.e. lettering isn’t right, edges aren’t straight) then it stops looking manmade. But for sure I am planning on drawing this some day.

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. I hope you enjoyed my first post.