Cat’s Up & Horse With No Name

"'Cat's Up' is a follow-up to my recent scratchboards of single feathers. Working again in a small size, for this artwork I added a favorite subject of mine, a pretty kitty. I selected a pose with the cat's face, cropped, in the bottom corner, with his focus on a small floating feather. Domestic cats are curious about birds (and, sadly, are major predators of them), but my furry friend is posing no danger here. Scratchboards are an ideal surface for animal art, and I love the ability to create the appearance of soft fur, the drama of long white whiskers, and the highlights in the eye.

'Horse With No Name' presents a new scratchboard subject for me. In this mini work I used the black background to my advantage, capturing the strong side lighting on the beautiful horse's head. The viewer's imagination completes the ears from just the outlined shapes, and the shadow side of the head melts into the darkness. The direction of my scratches reflects the growth of the horse's hair, and the dark and light values I scratched help show the 3-dimensionality. My knowledge of horses and tack are nil, but I loved using just a few finely scratched lines to suggest these components."

Cat reference photo from Pixabay. Horse reference photo from Karen Broemmelsick.