How I Drew My Remy the Rat
This article was updated on 22 June 2023.
Content Links
Must-haves and animal substitutions allowed
Back story of my drawing
Who was the real-life Remy?
What Science tells us about rats
Why I decided to draw Remy?
How To
Must-haves and animal substitutions allowed
- A pet rat, an uninvited ‘guest’ rat, or your pet dog or cat.
- You must like drawing. Obviously. 😆
- Drawing materials and equipment.
- Your chosen social media platform to show your art to the world.
Back story of my drawing
There was no way I could’ve drawn Remy unless I first captured a photograph of his best side.
But Remy crawled out of an unknown location, so capturing his photo wasn’t doable.
Fortunately, I found many Remy look-alike images on Pinterest as references.
My above graphite drawing of Remy depicts his best front side if I faced him up close and at floor level. I often saw his backside while he scampered away from his makeshift plastic food dish–a cover of a disposable fast-food container.
Who was the real-life Remy?
My favorite fictional rat is Remy, the lead blue rat in the animated film Ratatouille. So, I named my real-life rat Remy.
Remy was not a bona fide pet. He was our uninvited kitchen guest until the end of Spring 2019.
It looked like someone cared for Remy; his fur gleamed, and his bones weren’t popping out of his body, and it didn’t make sense to chase him around with a broom or kill him if he appeared again, so we decided to leave out food for him.
This lucky, well-fed son of another rat devoured our food scraps which were rejected cuts of celery, lettuce, apples, carrots, cilantro, onions, and chicken bones.
At around 1:00 a.m. on September 2018, I walked toward the kitchen to fill my water bottle.
I flipped on the dining room light. A giant dark gray, pink nose and tail rat stood on the gas stove. My heart flew into my mouth, and my body froze. He looked like a ceramic statue staring at me.
In an instant, a thought flashed that Remy might attack me. But Remy jumped down from the gas stove and dashed toward the back of the piano on my left.
I slowly tiptoed toward the kitchen.
“Stay where you are fucker! Don’t you attack me!”
Remy sprinted toward the stove’s dark underside, crammed his large body in, and disappeared.
What Science tells us about rats
Animal scientists say that male rats are giant-sized compared to female rats. This fact is the reason I decided my real-life Remy was male.
The average rat can grow to about 14 to 21 inches from nose to tail tip.
An adult rat’s body can be about 8 to 11 inches long, and its tail can be about 6 to 10 inches long.
The male rat’s growth rate is unrelenting once they reach puberty.
Remy’s body length looked about nine to ten inches long. I don’t know how long his tail was, but it looked long. His dark gray fur gleamed.
Why I decided to draw Remy?
At the time, I’d never illustrated a rat, and I don’t remember how I got the idea to challenge myself to draw Remy. I wanted to complete a drawing of Remy to recall my experience with him as our guest.
How To
- If you’re drawing for the first time or haven’t drawn for some time, I recommend you practice drawing exercises. Practice for at least 10 minutes every day before you draw your rat or pet.
- Find an easy-to-follow YouTube drawing tutorial or get Bert Dodson’s book Keys to Drawing and or Betty Edwards’s book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
- Take photographs of your preferred animal or find references on Pinterest or Google Images, or Unsplash.
- Draw your preferred animal.
- Don’t aim for a perfect depiction. If you’re happy with what you drew, you’re good.
- If you’re unhappy with your piece, keep drawing until you’re happy with the result.
- Sign up on a social media (SM) platform if you still need to get one.
- Post your art on your favorite SM platform.
Have fun!
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