Leonardo and Cats

This post is for Donna, whom I have not met but who said some very nice things on Facebook yesterday about my blog and my darling foster cats.  Apparently she saw the pictures last week of the cats helping me with my artwork and thought they made good assistants, which they do. 

Last week, I thought I would experiment with some leaves I had picked up on a walk after work, so I spent some time using them as stencils with Adirondack Color Washes.  Of course, the kittens had to check out the results:

She also mentioned that Leonardo da Vinci liked cats, which I hadn't heard before.  Sure enough, there is all sorts of stuff on Google, which, by the way, has the coolest doodle todayuijuhyyyyyyy - oh, and did I mention that Maggie sometimes likes to help me type my posts? - as I was saying, check out the cool Google Doodle today in honour of what would have been the 90th birthday of Art Clokey, the man who brought us stop motion clay animation featuring Gumby and Pokey and all their gang - man, does that take me back! 

Photo courtesy of popwatch.ew.com

Although I tended to favour Davey and Goliath (also an Art Clokey production) episodes more as a child:

But I digress.  I started to tell you about Leonardo and cats.  Apparently, he liked them and often featured them in his drawings, including this study sheet featuring several cats (and one dragon!).

Photo courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

Now don't get me wrong, I am not comparing myself to Leonardo in any way, shape or form - we both use a pencil and paper to draw sometimes but that's where the similarities end! Oh yes, and we both like cats!