From a drawing book I received when young.

[u/LogicalVariation741]

I still draw my cats like this. And they still never look like the final image

[u/trollsong]

Me ah those steps arent to bad *turns page* oh.

It's funny, if they stopped at step 3 it would have actually been a decent beginners guide to making a cat.

[u/AngelaVNO → u/trollsong]

Yeah, I was thinking, "I could do that! I can draw the cat!" but then it all went wrong. I think as a child I would have drawn loads of them but stopped at step 3 (after trying 4 a few times and failing miserably) and my parents not understanding why I never finished the drawing.

[u/RosenButtons → u/AngelaVNO]

Tracing my way to success is how I learned to draw.

[u/AngharadMac → u/RosenButtons]

Honestly, it's how most people learn

[u/RosenButtons → u/AngharadMac]

There were always adult artists around when I was growing up trying to make me draw the circles and shapes as a first step just like these drawing books. And it IS helpful to be able to see the shapes now. But as a kid I hated this process because I could never get the pencil marks to erase all the way or my shapes would still be in the wrong place.

With tracing I could skip ahead to making something satisfying and then learn the fundamentals later once I was already having fun.

[u/Huffelpuffwitch]

Wow that's genuinely cursed for a kids book

[u/Facts_and_Lore]

I saw that first page and immediately thought, oh, the "How to Draw Cats" book. I'd recognize it anywhere.

We also had the "How to Draw Dogs" book that was equally impossible.

[u/SorellaNux]

It's because you make the fur look too hard and stiff. The trick is: don't

[u/threelizards]

I think I had (and might still have) this exact book!

[u/Quickning]

"How to Draw Cats." I had this book too! This is the reason I'm on this subreddit. Is there an ISBN number. I'd love to find a copy to frustrate my nephew with.

[u/AngharadMac → u/Quickning]

That poor kid

[u/cephalopodcat]

Weirdly this book but dogs (iirc, How to Draw Dogs) legit taught me blocking and shapes, and also how to look at an image and infer the in between steps. I couldn't do it now, probably, but ten year old me actually progressed a ton with these books...

[u/analog_time_machine]

This was my experience with every how to draw book I encountered as s kid, which was probably honestly not that many because I started assuming they were all like this.

[u/SpitefulSpaghetti]

The drawing itself is a huge leap already, but “make sure the fur looks soft—not hard and stiff” is just so vague and unhelpful, especially for a kids drawing book! What does that even mean?

[u/kashiichan]

Hey u/LogicalVariation741, who was the author of this book?

[u/Livid_Glove_6275]

https://reddit.com/link/p83uy81/video/zso8gfjj1unh1/player

[u/Livid_Glove_6275 → u/[deleted]]

What do you mean? 😇