Do you know that feeling? You’re really getting on with things, and then you get a call from people who never ring you when you’ve got nothing to do and it feels as if the whole world has forgotten you. Which, of course, is exactly the case. People only get in touch when there’s an emergency. Although I rarely feel this way, I decided to just carry on with what I was doing.

Given that the private painting lesson wasn’t exactly a success either – mainly because the teacher kept chatting and I found it hard to concentrate – I spent a little time in the evening before bed drawing the cat pictured above. It’s Cashmir, or Kazimir, in his younger days. He already had those big ears. I once wrote about this cat when he was suffering from kidney failure and was on his deathbed. After consulting several vets, we decided not to take him to the vet, as there wasn’t much they could do anyway and it would only cause him stress. Dying can also happen at home in a peaceful environment, and that suits a cat just fine. Cats like to slip away to die in peace.
This tomcat really pulled through; I’ve no idea why – he probably still had plenty of zest for life, even though he lay there like a lifeless rag doll towards the end. Since then, he’s been more active than he ever was as a kitten.

He, too, was drawn on a small piece of sandpaper (400-grit) using pastel chalk. The black was done with a charcoal pencil (hard) and not very successful (it smudges easily and doesn’t cover well).
Materials: charcoal pencil (hard), soft pastel pencils (white, green, yellow) - brands: Conté à Paris + EP, white, brown + oker soft pastel sticks (Rembrandt), sandpaper 400. Size: 10 * 5 cm.

I’ve drawn up a list of things I still want to try on sandpaper, of which I don’t have much left, and I’ve divided it into four parts. One of the tests is a combination of soft pastels and Derwent Coloursoft coloured pencils. I found a little wooden box containing 48 of these pencils. I’ve no idea yet what to do with them. I’m not really keen on colouring or colouring-in pictures.

The black cat below is Oreo and this is the result. Only the finer lines (white) were drawn with the Derwent pencil. These pencils are a bit greasy and, if you ask me, not really suitable. The only reason those white lines are fine is because the pencils are still new and had a sharp point, unlike the soft pastel pencils. In certain places, the Derwent pencil simply slid over the soft pastel and left no line behind, which isn’t that different from some soft pastel pencils.
I didn't feel the need to blend with my finger. The pencils did the job good enough.

I’ve noticed that sharpening all the pencils with a Stanley knife also blunts the blades quickly, so this isn’t just the case with pencil sharpeners.

Materials: soft pastel pencils (black, orange, yellow, green, white) brand: Conté à Paris + EP, white Derwent coulorsoft pencil, sandpaper sixlze: 10 * 6 cm - 400. Hairspray

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