Cat in Graphite Pencil

What You Will Need: Good quality drawing paper (I used lightweight hot pressed watercolor paper), a range of pencils (F, B, 2B, 4B, 6B), paper stump, eraser, blu-tack (removable poster adhesive) or kneadable eraser.
1. Select your Photograph. Select a photograph that is well-lit, with good visible fur texture and no areas that are hard to see - you don't want to have to guess what shape the ear should be - and a good pose. Elongated or awkward poses are hard to make into a convincing drawing, especially from a photograph. Ideally, the picture should be taken at cat's eye-level.
	2. Trace the Outline. Scan and print, or photocopy your photo (or use tracing paper to make a preliminary tracing), then lightly trace the key points of your image. Take particular care with the ears, eyes and whiskers, and draw as lightly as possible, especially when the outlined area will be white.
	3. Begin Shading Start shading the darkest areas of the drawing. Take your time when working towards detailed areas. Remember that you aren't drawing lines to show detail, but putting AREAS of light or dark tone in the same place that they are on the photograph.
4. Shading Mid-Tones. Using a B pencil, begin shading the mid-toned areas. Use a blending stump instead of your fingers to carefully smudge over and even out the shading. Where you have light fur against dark, use short strokes going against the direction of fur growth, leaving tiny spaces between the pencil marks for the light fur.