Laurel Burch Cat Heads

This cat project was inspired by a talented artist named Laurel Burch, who sadly passed away recently. She had a wonderful style of drawing abstract cats with large eyes that met in the middle.

1. Ask students to make three dots (in pencil) across the center of a paper as per the diagram. The 3 dots are connected to make the eyes. A triangle nose is added, nose lines and mouth. Lastly, the outside of the head is drawn around the head.
2. Students use a black Sharpie marker to trace all their lines.
3. Distribute oil pastels and encourage the students to use unusual colors to fill in their cat and background.

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3D Laurel Burch Cat

You can use this idea to turn any silhouette into a 3-dimensional shape. Just make sure you use a thick paper so your design will stand up nice and straight.

1. I love using Laurel Burch's cats as inspiration for projects, her style is so fun to imitate. I made a two cardboard templates of a silhouette (see picture) and had the students trace each onto the heaviest watercolor paper I could find.
2. Each student is to cut out their two cats, including the narrow slits. They need to be about 1/32" wide to accommodate the thick paper. Test sliding the cats together to make sure the slits are working.
3. The students may then draw in pencil their cat design, which they need to repeat on both sides of the two paper cats. When the design is done, they paint in the shapes and designs on their cat with liquid watercolor.
4. After the paint is dry, I gave each student a gold poster paint marker and had then trace all the pencil lines. When the marker is dry, slide the cats back together and enjoy seeing your cat from all directions!

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How to Draw a Laurel Burch Cat

This project was inspired by a talented artist named Laurel Burch, who has now sadly passed away. She developed an abstract style of painting cats that is really fun to imitate.

1. For young students, do a step-by-step drawing session as the diagram shows.
2. After the cat is drawn in pencil, have the students trace the lines with a marker, and add fun patterns to their cat body if they wish.
3. A final coloring with construction paper crayons will complete their picture.

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