Drawing the Side View of a Cat

For my next post, I have decided to follow the book and draw a picture of the side view of a cat. This exercise will include using shapes again, but this time I will also be shading my drawing.

The first thing that the Willenbrinks informs is to sketch the legs and body of the cat by using a baseline to get the correct proportions. They explain that, "A baseline is used to establish the placement of your subject and to help work out proportions of a drawing,"(Willenbrink 72) which is similar to the last technique I practiced in my last post, structural sketches.

The reference picture that I will be using is this one:

The first step that is mentioned is to sketch the body shape of the cat by drawing a rectangle and drawing vertical lines that go all the way down to your baseline(the line at the bottom). Next, the book instructs us to draw an oval head that is overlapping the horizontal line at the top. Finally, it tells us to add lines for the neck and legs. (Willenbrink 72)

Here is how it turned out for me:

Next, the book instructs me to add the details of the cat (Ears, tail, etc.):

Finally, the book instructs to "Use back-and-forth strokes to the cat's fur, varying the lights and darks to imply form"(Willenbrink 73). Because the cat in my reference picture had a white fur along with black fur, I didn't shade in the entire cat, but here are the results:

As you can see shading really isn't my stronghold.

And that concludes my post. What do you think i can improve with my drawing? Do you have trouble with shading when you draw? If not then what techniques do you use to simplify it?

Willenbrink, Mark, and Mary Willenbrink. Drawing for the Absolute Beginner: A

     Clear & Easy Guid to Successful Drawing. Cincinnati, Ohio, North Light

     Books, 2006.