IF: Moustache

This week's Illustration Friday topic has me dipping back into the archives for a couple of pencil sketches I did many years (decades even) ago of a former sister-in-law's cat, who happened to be named "Moustache."  Said kitty had this name because of the distinctive white markings above his mouth.

About a year ago, I scanned the sketches, then fiddled around with them using my new Painter software.  What you see above are the results of my play with the grainy watercolor brush.  Moustache, who died many years ago, was not a ginger cat, as my doodling would seem to suggest, but a seal point Siamese.  The white fur moustache really stands out against the familiar black-to-tan coloring.  It's too bad Moustache isn't around anymore to model his proper colors for me. 

(Psst, Blogger, you need to add the word "moustache" to your spelling dictionary. It really is an acceptable alternative to "mustache.")

Life changes my plans

Sorry for taking so long to post again. In mid-September, someone extremely near and dear to me experienced a medical crisis that, while her condition has improved somewhat in recent days, has not fully cleared. Circumstances have demanded that I make more use of a different set of skills for a while.  I did get a bit of sketching in before the crisis hit, however, and managed a few quick sketches during Sunday morning sermons, but getting a sketch done each day of the week has suddenly become a low priority.

Here are the sketches I did manage to get down before life changed my focus:

You might get the idea, from a few of the sketches above, that I was having some headache issues during the week of September 9th.  You would be quite correct.  Don't worry; they were not serious.  They seem merely to have been related to a combination of tension (as I was engaged in a search for a new job--having determined I need the full-time-with-benefits kind at this point in my life) and ragweed allergies.  The headaches seem especially inconsequential given what happened at the end of the week.  At any rate, I was clear-headed enough to have fun trying to translate the pain into drawings.

Here are the Sunday morning sketches from my little Moleskine:

You may notice that the last sketchbook page above is dated 10/6/2013.  That's because I have decided to revamp my September challenge to make it an ongoing one in which I attempt to average a sketch a day from here on out.  Here's hoping life will allow ...