A Muse of a Challenge

My mother is also an artist, and for some time we tried to work out our busy schedules to draw duel. We would post each other a picture to create something of it. Her first challenge was a cat sitting on the back of a lounge chair. I decided to make him my studio cat muse, hers was posed in the backyard with wooden fencing as the background.

I set up a tin of paintbrushes in front of an easel at work. I outlined the cat to fit the objects around the motif to compose the portrait. Customers had fun watching as my paper muse turned into a studio cat.
He is done on bristol smooth paper with Staetler grades of pencils.
It is a fun little project that I wish could have continued. It gave us various challenges to see what would develop with different personal perspectives. I tell all the customers that stated they wished they could draw: practice makes the artist, challenges make you grow, to draw you only need grab something to put it to paper.
As Leonardo states: Oh Painter! that you cannot be a good one if you are not the universal master of representing by your art every kind of form produced by nature. And this you will not know how to do if you do not see them, and retain them in your mind.