In my ongoing study of 1950s era design….I’ve fallen in love with what was a ubiquitous image: an “atomic cat”! Generally they’re black – but the shapes and drawing style is just simple. But I decided to use the shape and add Christmas colors, bow ties, a sweater…..and then made a bunch of my former kitties into atomic ones in a painting for my bedroom!

Tutorial: Draw a retro (Christmas) cat

A stylized illustration like this is very easy to customize. The cat need not be recognizable as your specific cat…just include a feature or two that YOU love about your feline friend. Your cousin won’t necessarily know that’s your cat on their card, but that’s alright. They’ll just be delighted to get a card with an original drawing on it!

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

The sketch

Here’s how simple the sketch is…a saucer shaped head, some eyes and ears, a long body and tail. Boom!

The key is to keep the painting loose; just shapes. If there’s a wonky edge or if color bleeds, you can draw over it, but when adding the lines, make them enough of a NON traced, NON perfect outline that it’s clear you meant to. (If you only do it in one spot, it’ll look like you just made a mistake.) This is an illustrative style, and I’m here for it! 🙂

I did the same thing large – an 11″ x 15″ painting of three of the cats I’ve had over the years! Oliver, the tall grey boy, was always quite dapper….a respectable boy who acted quite dignified. If he ever oopsed and fell off a chair or something he’d recover with a prance to tell you that you didn’t see what you just saw. LOL

Punchinello passed last fall, and he was my snuggly boy. And if you’ve had cats you know that’s not always common! But that was his game, finding me sitting down and getting between me and a book, a drawing, or my phone – for a petting session. (Until he was done, then he would vehemently let me know it’s over. ha!)

Tsuki is the one who passed just recently….my chubby girl who lived to an extremely old age. She’s seen a lot around here, she was good friends with my last golden retriever Ciara, so I hope Ciara greeted her over at that rainbow bridge.

Clean and Simple Trees class

If this cat looks doable to you, then the Clean and Simple Trees class is entirely doable! (and if not, the trees might show you the cat’s not hard once you get the hang of it!)

Class is underway already but you can join in anytime – learn to make trees in a variety of styles, then see if you can adapt a simple cat like this one to the same styles taught in class! Head over to the Artventure community (free to join) and tap on COURSES in the menu. The trees class is only $7.99, and lots of folks are already enjoying it – and getting their Christmas cards done!

Try a retro cat in any medium!

Use the sketch to create a cat in whatever medium you like. Coloring shapes is simple to do, then add pen. Just make sure if you use colored pencil that the pen can draw atop any waxy buildup that you might get if you use heavy coverage. Otherwise with most mediums you can use any pen at all!

Supplies

• CARD:
  • Arches Cold Press Pads:  BLICK  • Amazon
  • Daniel Smith colors:  
    • Quinacridone Rose 
    • New Gamboge
    • Sap Green
  • Brushes:
    • Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #8:  BLICK • AMZ
    • Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #4
  • Fountain pens: 
    
    • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen EF
    • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen F
    • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen M
• PAINTING:
  • Saunders Waterford Cold Press sheets
  • House of Hoffman Palette 
  • Daniel Smith Watercolors
    • Yellow Ochre
    • Phthalo Blue Turquoise
    • Cobalt Blue
    • Payne’s Blue Gray
    • Alvaro’s Caliente Grey
  • Grafix Art Board https://amzn.to/2RxPc0w
  • Artist tape 3/4″ https://amzn.to/3rF90MT
  • Brushes:
  • Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Brush – Round 8
  • Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Brush – Round 10
  • Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky Sable Brush – Round 4
  • Fountain pens: 
    • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen EF
    • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen F
    • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen M

Clean and simple is quite popular among cardmakers at this upcoming time of year…with a lot of cards to make and other projects vying for attention, getting beautiful cards made that express your love for your recipients can be tough if each one takes a long time! So I’ve got a potential solution to get a bunch of yours done quickly – and the awesome part? You likely already have all the supplies you need! 

Tutorial: Clean and simple Christmas tree cards

This is the first lesson in the CAS Trees class over at Artventure (click on Courses in the menu over there) ….. more on the class in a minute, but enjoy the simplicity of this pretty tree first:

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

A word about black pens

For all versions, pretty much any pens you have should work since the line work goes on TOP of the color. If you’re not adding extra color after, it won’t matter if it bleeds or not, the pen should stay put.

That said, some pens on some papers on top of some mediums CAN give you a little surprise. What you’re used to at a particular thickness may feather out a little once it’s on top of color or on a new paper. Always test out a little bit on a scrap so you know what you’re getting.

For fountain pens, I like a TWSBI Eco; for projects like this usually the Medium nib is best (but I keep a Fine and Extra Fine in the studio just in case.)  Don’t overlook the Sharpie Ultra Fine that’s sitting in the kitchen pencil cup though! Or a Copic Multiliner works great too.

Water-based markers

Watercolor markers can be a challenge to blend in large areas so this tree with its stripes is a simple one to get a blend in each line, just using a brush to push the color back to the shadow side. For supplies – any water-soluble markers will work here, even kids Crayola!

SUPPLIES: My favorite crafty set is Sketchmarker Aqua, and fo2r fine art: Faber Castell Albrecht Durer (Blick AMZ) (these dont fade in the light). I recommend CansonXL (Blick AMZ)  for paper with these pens, it moves the color nicely even for beginners! A good crafty brush would be a Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #8:(Blick AMZ) and.or Round #4 (Blick)

Traditional Watercolor

While I say “traditional” watercolor that doesn’t mean it’s got to be fine art watercolor. Kids watercolor paints could do well here too – though they might not be as pigmented as fine art paints. But a pastel watercolor tree can be gorgeous, so don’t overlook supplies you have on hand! You’ll create stripes with a midtone, drop a dark on the left side for the shadow, then use a damp brush to push the color leftward to create that highlight.

SUPPLIES: I’ve used Daniel Smith watercolors here: Cobalt Teal Blue with Indanthrone. And a little Quin Rose for the pot! But there are so many colors to use! Try a pink tree or a purple one, or go traditional with greens. Anything will do! For paper I love Arches Cold Press, but with areas this small, the inexpensive CansonXL (Blick AMZ)  will also do; there’s no fancy edges to worry about, and the XL might be easier for your pen work.

Copic markers

Copic users, you can join in this fun too – just pick a set of three blending colors, a light, medium, and dark, and create some stripes! 

SUPPLIES: I used three Copic Markers – BG47 BG13 BG000 Copic and an RV14 for th epot.  Use your favorite paper to color on, I like me some Neenah Cardstock, Solar White.

Colored Pencil

Your pencils can come out to play with these trees, too! A dark, medium and light in whatever combo you want …I was trying to mimic the colors in the other versions and didn’t have a single pencil group that would work so tried a more bluish dark, a greenish midtone, and bluish light color (sorry I forgot to write down color names!) since I was blending with gamsol. The three then kinda average out to an overall bluegreen color.

SUPPLIES: I recommend either Prismacolor (Blick AMZ) or Polychromos (Blick AMZ) Pencils; colored pencil is one medium where the cheaper pencils just aren’t able to put out enough pigment. My favorite paper to use with pencil is Stonehenge (Blick AMZ) …it’s got the best tooth I’ve found that pulls enough pigment off the pencil tips, and works great with blending stumps and Gamsol Blending solution.

A new little type of class!

As you may well know, I offer almost 100 classes at art-classes….those range from the basics in each medium (Jumpstart classes) to intermediate smaller courses (mini classes) and all sorts of advanced ones too. But….each one is a deeper class, thought out over months and prepared to convey specific techniques and ideas. 

But….I also wanted a way to teach students to just PLAY.

This year I’ve given myself the space to play. A week on each theme, and creating social media content on that theme, has helped me take time to explore an idea and push it….and I think that’s a super valuable exercise! And I think I may have a way to help YOU do the same kind of thing in a special, smaller, “snackable” class.

These will have shorter videos, a concentrated subject, and explore a variety of techniques around that smaller idea. A few weeks back I offered a free Watercolor Pencil Leaves class, and wanted to see how popular that might be. So many people signed up! Yay! So now ….it’s time for a new class in that genre….

Clean and Simple Trees class

With the holidays approaching, trees are a perfect topic for a CAS class….trees are such a focal point for Christmas cards, they can hold their own as a solo image! And with so many techniques in so many mediums, there’s a ton to play with. As students work through the 6 lessons, more ideas should start popping up (and more are added in class!) for other subjects that would be easily rendered in that style! 

To sign up for this $7.99 class, pop over to the Artventure community and look in the Courses tab. I’m hoping by the time you read this, that the class is available on web, android, and iOs but Apple’s been slow at approving things so far! If it’s not listed as an option in your Courses tab, then you’d need to go to the web version (https://artventure.mn.co/) and access it there until Apple gets its act together.

Supplies

• BLACK PENS:
  • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen EF
  • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen F
  • TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen M
  • Sharpie Ultra Fine
  • Copic Multiliner
• COPIC:
  • Copic Markers 
  • Copic Hex Chart 
  • Neenah Cardstock, Solar White 250pk
• PENCIL:
  • Prismacolor pencils 
  • Prismacolor Hex Chart
  • Stonehenge Drawing Paper: AMZ –  BLICK 
  • Blending stumps 
  • Gamsol Blending solution
• WATER-BASED MARKERS:
  • Sketchmarker Aqua Animals set
  • Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor Markers  Blick – AMZ
  • Canson XL Paper: BLICK – AMZ
• WATERCOLOR:
  • Nickel Azo
  • New Gamboge
  • Anthraquinoid Scarlet
  • Cobalt Teal Blue
  • Indanthrone Blue
  • Green Apatite
  • Sap Green
  • Perylene Green
  • Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #8:  BLICK – AMZ 
  • Silver Brush Black Velvet Round #4 
  • Arches Cold Press Pads:  BLICK –  Amazon