"My blue cat" illustration.

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It is very nice for me to discover the fun it is painting by hand again!As I told you in last posts, I started to make this illustration style about 24 years ago, when I was a design student. 

I have spent all these years since then, designing on my computer. Only some months ago, I felt like trying to make a illustration in this style again. 

I enjoyed a lot designing "My magical garden" illustration some weeks ago, as I painted it at free whiles, relaxed, having patience. But  I haven´t felt like that painting this cat. 
I started to sketch it on pencil, and I started to feel excited, feeling like in a hurry. I wanted to see it finished the same day. 

I hadn´t drawn any cats before using this technique, and I was curious about how I could develop it! 

First, I sketched a pencil simple cat on a vegetal paper sheet, only the silhoutte. I loved sketching on it as it the one I always use to draw hand motives for my patterns. Then, I transfered it to the stained cardboard. 

I wrote in a last post, that I made these stains on some white cardboards with a mix of paintings on my bath about 20 years ago. It was great to found them at a folder.

Then, I traced it in black ink with a marker. I didn´t have any clue how I was going to fill it. 
I drew some slight pencil lines, but I decided to draw spontaneous shapes directly with the black marker. Once my drawing is all traced in black, I painted it with watery broad brushstrokes. I must say, I am not very careful. 

Once it is dry, then I painted it with small brushstrokes to add more vivid colours areas. 

I have learnt that these kind of paintings look naïve or charming just due to this disorder. I felt painting it like a child doing what I liked to. 
Of course, I am aware it is full of mistakes. I even thought that I could have developed it much nicer, drawing other kind of shapes, but I thought that to repeat it again it was not a good idea. It is not possible to make an identical cat. This was my first free interpretation, so I decided to finish it.  

I think I felt this time much more confident about my messy way of working, as I knew for my last experiences that at first the drawing doesn´t look good at all, and that I have doubts, as watercolours mix with ink, water colours paintings drift, it is full of stains…But my last ones were like this one, so I knew that after tracing everything in ink again, the painting could change a lot!

At the end I traced all the drawing in black once more time as some black lines were covered with watercolours paintings. 

It looks quite simple as I only added a sun and some clouds. 

My design selling on products at, http://society6.com/JuliaGrifoldesigns/My-blue-cat#1=45 

I hope you like it. It seems a strange cat to me, anyway I have started to love it. I love the mistery that involves this animal. 

I hope it gives me lots of luck! It has a Egyptian look according to my children opinition!

It was a pleasure to share it with you, moreover because when I was young I didn´t like and I didn´t dare to show my paintings to anybody, due to my shame or my insecurity! Luckily, I am proud of my drawings now. 


I wish lots of inpiration! 
Have a great weekend! I hope you visit me next friday!x