SARAH'S BIRTHDAY CARD

 

Today is my youngest granddaughter's 14th birthday and now that she has opened it I can show you her card I made this year.  It's a portrait of Narvi her favourite cat who spends a lot of time with her curled up on her bed.

 

 

I started by tracing a photo I took from Sarah's facebook profile page and then transferring it on to the tinted paper I had chosen, a lovely warm earth colour that reflects some of the colour in Narvi's fur.

 

 

I used a white Derwent drawing pencil to draw the outline first as these pencils have a thick lead and a very creamy texture that I wanted to use convey the fur in the picture.  I filled in the eyes first as if I had made a mistake I would have had to start again, then I started on the fur with the various earth shades in the Derwent collection.

 

 

 

I continued filling in the fur, gradually deepening in the shadows till I completed the portrait as you can see from the picture at the top of this post. 

 

 

I normally put in some money for Sarah to spend on something she wants and this time I printed off a section of the head and cut a slit where his mouth is.  I glued this on the inside of the card with a few notes stuck in his mouth.  I hope she smiled when she saw it as it did look rather funny as I closed the card to put in the envelope.

For cat lovers Narvi is a Maine Coon cat who has a black brother called Odin and an older cousin called Loki.