Q&A for How to Draw a Cat

A color wheel shows colors that complement each other. It also lets you know the opposite colors. Blue and orange are complements. Red and green are opposite on the color wheel.

You need to do a lot of reading and sketching. But primarily, you need to find a good teacher in your area who will help you develop an artist's eye.

Observe a real-life cat as you're drawing or find a clear reference photo online. After you've drawn the shape of your cat, outline the areas that have dark and light fur. Make short, quick strokes in the same direction for the fur, using a light hand for areas of light fur and adding darker marks where the fur is darker. Overlap your marks to give the fur a more realistic look.

The best way to find your style is to draw lots of different cats! Experiment with lots of styles, from drawing realistic cats to cartoon and cute ones. With practice, you'll likely find yourself gravitating towards one style over the others.

Adjust the eyes. The eyes are the most important part to making a cute cat.

Yes, as multiple different shades are needed for overlapping fur. You can also blur them with your finger, an eraser, or a rubber. Colored pencils are greatly recommended for realistic drawings.

You certainly can. Just be careful not to damage your eraser, sometimes the ink from the pen can rub off onto it.

Sometimes you can just draw a smaller version of the cats shown here, just with more fluffy fur and wider eyes. For more ideas, see How to Draw a Kitten .

Yes, but to outline don't press too hard, because you can make those little lumps of paper or even a hole, so just be a little careful.

Feel free to exclude whatever details you don't want to draw. You don't have to draw the fur, for example, or the little dots by its nose, or as many whiskers, or even the individual toes if you want a very simple look.

Make eyes that look more like that of an actual cat, and make sure the limb and body sizes look realistic.

Draw the frame first, then the eye shape, then the pupil, and finally the details around the pupil.

You can make the eyes however you want.

Follow the same steps here, but make your lines smaller.

I find the best way would be to make the fur (especially on the face) a bit more jagged and spiky like anime hair, and add some features of anime eyes to the cat eyes. I would imagine taking anime eye tutorials and then adjusting the inside of the eye to look more like a cat's would help.

Lock your arm and then slowly release it. You can also (if you have been at it for a long time) take a rest.

You can do the side-viewing cat normally and then outline it in Sharpie. After doing so, you could flip your paper to the back side and trace it, with or without a light box.

Maybe you could draw features out of proportion or follow the cartoon cat instructions, with your own modifications.

Try drawing a cat on your paper or canvas, and filling it in with your paint.

Start with basic oblongs and circles. The circle will be the head, with the oblongs serving as the stretching torso. Then, create the front limbs, with them stretching over the cat's head. The hind legs should be drawn slightly bent. Now, start on guidelines on the cat face, whether realistic or cartoony. Finally, erase the unnecessary lines and color in.

Drawing realistically is not easy. It takes patience and practice.

Yes. There are many different types/breeds of cats, and they all have different tail lengths.

If the cat looks hunched over, you can try re-drawing it and keeping the back straighter. If you want to draw a hunched over cat, then just arch the back and consider crouching the legs in your drawing.

You can put your wrist down on the paper. You have be careful of smudging though.

I would recommend Hobby Lobby or another craft store. You can also purchase tons of art supplies online.

There are many ways to draw cats. Try doing an internet search for "simple cat drawings" and copy one you like.

Go to: https://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Kitten

Use layers and carefully stroke around the area to make thin lines similar to the pattern in the example.

There are many different colors of cats. The most common colors are orange, yellow, white, and black, and cats are often a mix of multiple colors.

Using your finger in most cases will work, but you can also use a q-tip, a dry paintbrush with no paint, or if you are using pencils to color, you could also try adding a layer of color, moving up a bit, adding another layer of color, and continuing to do this until you are happy with your piece.