A fun artist for the holidays is Charles Wysocki (1928 – 2002) his whimsical animal painting and drawings are a “purrfect” subject. Charles Wysocki, was born in Detroit, Michigan. From the time he was a little tot, he always wanted to be an artist. He loved using cats and other critters in his whimsical paintings and prints. Wysocki is known for his primitive folk art style. In our lesson we use Wysocki 1995 painting “Shall We” as our inspiration. We focus on the cats looking at the fish bowl. We use a combination of watercolor pencils and pastel chalk to create texture and dimension.
Step #1: Draw some light guidelines across center and down the middle of the paper. Draw two circles through the center guideline for the cats heads.
Step #2: Draw eyes, snout, ears and whiskers. Remember the cats eyes should be looking up.
Step #2: Draw the cats legs with skinny ovals. Draw the paws and use the “U” for the cats toes.
Step #3: Draw the bodies with a large oval and add the tails.
Step #5: Draw the table, rug and the baseboard of the wall.
Step #6: Draw fish tank with fish in it.
Step #7: Add your details and design your own cats. Remember to erase your pencil lines that you do not want. Use your choice of materials to finish your work.
