Monday, September 12, 2011

russian cat in a hat - visual telephone game

Today I drew this cat from the front cover of Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia II.

I don't own the books but I'd like to - they are mesmerizing.
I'll get them someday when I'm feeling rich...





A word about the progression: I printed out a small thumbnail from the internet, then drew from that into my sketchbook, then drew the larger version on brown paper from the sketch book drawing, then painted over that loosely with a small brush without referring to the previous drawings.

It was really interesting after I had done all those stages to look back at the original source picture and see how much it had morphed!! Like a visual version of the "telephone game" but with only one player. See for yourself...




I really liked the "grittiness/toughness" of the original so I went back into mine with a Sharpie to toughen it up a bit (I also messed with the contrast in photoshop on this one).



It would be interesting to keep going with this telephone game, trying all sorts of media and always working from the most recent drawing... but as with all things, my attention span is limited...

Right now it's time for bed... maybe tomorrow I'll draw it in crayons or something... we'll see.

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