Kelly had been enjoying catnip (again) and bathing by the sunny back door, and Mimi wanted to join her. Kelly was fine with this at first, then Mimi moved a little closer and Kelly got nervous so they essentially traded places.
Of course, no one but me would know who this is or that one of the cats is tortoiseshell Kelly. I didn’t even add her facial detail because her face was entirely in shadow, but even that was difficult to catch as every new view I tried as the cats walked around and I stood in the same position in relation to them their faces were different.
For me, it was a lot of interesting and difficult angles as I tried to capture their placement in the moment, then flesh them out later; I had to do a good bit of study after the fact. Often I take a photo of my subject but I only have two hands and if one is holding the sketchbook and the other is sketching, the moment goes by.
Just as much as the lines and shapes here, I was doing my best to capture the interaction between Kelly and Mimi; there was no hostility, and in fact Mimi tried to be friends, but Kelly was always uncomfortable so their exchange is a little tense, close, but not touching.
Actually she did really well. I kind of had this planned watching Mimi walk around on my work table as if she owned it, which she did at that moment. So I rolled the apples an tangerine out there with her, at just the moment she decided she wanted to be on my lap. I don’t think that was a coincidence.
So the fruit sat there while I hoped another cat would come along and just hang out there for a minute or two. Normally at least one is there, sometimes all of them are. But not today.
So when Mimi decided to get off my lap and headed for the windowsill, I picked her up and put her on the table and asked her nicely if she would go and sit among the fruit for just two minutes. And she did. She wasn’t happy about it, but she sat there long enough for me to get her basic outline and that of the fruit, and though I liked her first posture, with her head turned in profile, I like her mad face too.
Mostly, I just like Mimi. And I think she likes me. She would not have sat there if she didn’t want to.
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