My daughter painted this picture of her fur baby. I may be biased, but she did a pretty amazing job, huh?

Hi everyone!
I'm Zae (pronounced "zayy") and this is my first time sharing art through reddit!
(used to be more on deviantart in their heydays..but now also mostly on bluesky and general reposting to other platforms: x/twitter, tumblr, instagram/threads, tiktok)

It's a little scary to me right now but I know I'm aligning with my real dream of one day publishing my own cartoon (whether indie or not) and I'd like to be more structure in relearning digital art properly (starting with none other than my fav animal in the world and the creature I always warm up with!: cats!)

To put this commitment into action, I'm doing a Ship30-esque daily writing and doodling challenge for the next 30 days~
I'm wondering where is the most popular go-to resource or place (whether a yt playlist or some masterpost about cat references and all about anatomy, poses, etc) for drawing cats?

For now, I'm just learning for myself and also gathering all the resources I wish I had when I was drawing since primary or high school (when I had some level of self-learning).

NB. Sometimes sharing might be delayed because cross posting is a real PAIN ;c but if you don't want to miss any of these in the series, you can follow my substack: https://ship30zae.substack.com/ (since it can email you directly when I share vs you scrolling to find my post or having to check from my profile)

I'm wondering how my current cat style will change in 30 days!!

I don’t paint very often and this is my first time painting something other than a small sketch.

I want it to look nice since it’s a gift for my mom, so any constructive feedback is appreciated.

I wasted more time searching for tutorials than actually drawing. Here's what finally changed:

Finding the "best" learning resource is usually procrastination in disguise.

I almost convinced myself I wasn't ready to start learning.
Was even afraid of choosing the "wrong" resource (there’s just SO MANY)

In the end, you don't need more resources, you need more REPS (REPETITIONS).

So here I am…still with Monika Zagrobelna’s How to Draw Cats guide~

💠 btw I'm documenting this journey one day at a time.
If you'd like to receive each new cat art learning journey essay and doodle as soon as it's published, sign up to my Substack: https://ship30zae.substack.com

i was on a plane, got very bored, and tried to draw cats. they’re partially traced and i would love advice or criticism!

If you're into traditional drawing of cats, feel free to check out my page on Instagram. I'd really appreciate your support and would love to hear your thoughts!

https://www.instagram.com/intothedepthoffur?igsh=MTgyeTJucXYyejN3cw==

I made a zine about why cats are the best (I think this counts as a drawing)

I used Neoart 6901 oil/wax pastels by Caran D'ache over Japanese acrylic gouache (j.lilac), door some grip. I used a black acrylic brush marker around her eyes and a white one with a chisel tip, in order to get the thin whiskers. It was a successful experiment and now I am pretty much all prepared to do it again on an 8"x10"

Anyone else tried these pastels yet?? They are so pigmented! I highly recommend if you do any work that requires high light-fastness, or if you sell your work! It's become my favorite overall art supply. I hope this isn't pretentious, I just enjoy everything about drawing the pets and want to share my love!

Graphite watercolor and marker

Also see some practice evidence and ref pics I looked at...
not purrfect but I put in 30min out of my ultra buzy day so it's a smol win~

probably did poor justice applying to my photos, but wonder if anyone else would have marked the skeletal frame better than me?

By the way, where did I begin my little cat art learning journey?
none other than asking Google and starting with Monika Zagrobelna's guide.

(((I know posting can be rather late but I do get essay+drawing done on the day (just sharing across platforms is quite the tedious thing!)

So if you don't want to be guessing when the next one is published, you can sign up to my Substack so you'll get the email notice here 👉 ship30zae.substack.com)))

8 minute ink sketch