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So my #inktober will be a #catober, with the goal of doing a deep dive into cat anatomy and construction, and bridging the gap between my #cat drawings from ref or direct observation and those from imagination.

Here where I was yesterday drawing from ref, feeling rusty because my summer was many things but focused on drawing it wasn't.

Also, sphynx cats are just the coolest.

#art #drawing #ink

a drawing in brown ink of a hairless cat curled up and sleeping
#cat #art #Ink #Drawing #inktober #catober
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
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And here is today's starting attempt at drawing cats from imagination. I swear I could do them better half a year ago, but this is where I was today, mapping out the gaps in my cat knowledge.

And then some skeleton studies to start to fill in those gaps...

#catober #inktober

a horizontal A3 page filled with six rough sketches of cats from imagination, done in black ink
a horizontal A3 page with some notes about cat anatomy in the upper left corner, and the rest filled with three drawings of cat skeletons in black ink
#inktober #catober
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
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Damn I miss studying _hard_, I wish I could just do nothing but draw cats all October, I could do a thousand cats - yes that would be doable if drawing cats full time, 30-40 cats per day is not at all impossible.

If I had nothing else to do. Gnah.

Fuck, now I want to do that. 1000 cats. But that would likely actually _not_ be the best way to learn about them, because it would make it tempting to skip the slow anatomy studies and just go for volume instead.

*itch *itchitchitch

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Oona is pushing paint around  
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This was #catober day 2 yesterday. Not enough time to do real study, but at least did get the lack-of-knowledge mapping and some cougars from ref in.

#inktober #ink #art #MastoArt #cats

a horizontal A3 page with a sketch of a cat skeleton in the upper left corner, and the rest filled with five more cat sketches, all done in black ink, very scraggly from imagination
four sketches of a cougar from reference, done in black ink brush
#cats #art #Ink #mastoart #inktober #catober
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I still feel like my mind has half forgotten how to think in line, but it got better in the second half of the page of cougars, especially with this one. Here a slightly cleaned up version to make myself feel good:

#cats #ink #art #MastoArt

A sketch of a standing cougar in black brush pen, with clean outlines and some indications of fur and muscles. The cougar is facing to the left, but turning its head to look towards the viewer.
#cats #art #Ink #mastoart
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Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 3 yesterday. started again by mapping my notknowing, then followed along with the first cat lesson by Joe Weatherly on NMA. Then I tried to apply that first helping of rough anatomical info to some of my sketches from the day before. Last I made a bunch more sketches from ref, and again made some attempts at very rudimentary anatomical analysis.

#ink #cats #MastoArt #drawing

five very rough sketches of cats from imagination, done in almost dried out black felt tip pen. The first sketch has no head and is commented with "NO" The same four ink drawings of cats I had posted yesterday, but now two of those are worked over in blue and red colored pencil indicating some rough anatomical structures, and the drawing in the lower right corner that is just a solid black silhouette has a simplified skeleton drawn in in white colored pencil.
A schematic drawing of a profile view of a jaguar, indicating some very basic anatomical structures, done in blue, pink and black colored pencil, surrounded by notes in pencil. Four sketches of a cougar in black ink, with the top two having some simplified skeletal structures drawn over in blue colored pencil
#cats #Ink #Drawing #mastoart #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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Last of yesterday's #catober pages. This one was fun to do, but also I could feel myself being strongly pulled to doing pretty flat shape based drawing reproducing the references without really understanding their forms in space, in other words without really knowing what I was doing.

I could do this all day and enjoy myself a lot, but I would not be learning much from it, and would be no wiser trying to draw cats from imagination afterwards.

#ink #cats #MastoArt

Four drawings of cats in various poses standing, sitting and lying down, done in black ink.
#cats #Ink #mastoart #catober
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Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 4. Today I felt like my mind was a bit more awake than before when I did this morning's mapping of notknowing. Still far away from looking good, but at least looking not-good with more of a 3d feel to them.Then a page with studies after Bammes and Wendling, trying to map yesterday's rough anatomy on how these artists have drawn felines. Then put a sheet of marker paper over yesterday's sketches and tried to work out wtf these cats' skeletons are doing.

#MastoArt #cats

Seven rough sketches of cats from imagination, done in black fountain pen, attempting to imagine several views of overall just two different poses, rotating them in space. Four sketches of very simplified cat skeletons in various poses drawn in blue colored pencil.
Four studies of large cats done in brown ink, two on the left based on drawings of Gottfried Bammes, the two on the right based on drawings by Claire Wendling. The lower row of drawings has again some rough indications of anatomical structure drawn over in blue and pink colored pencil.
#cats #mastoart #catober
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This means I have done no simple drawing from reference today and that was probably for the best but also I am kinda itchy now and feel like I "haven't really drawn today" and still have the urge to do that. But also all this scanning & post-processing & posting has taken >1.5h already and it is late and I should go to bed so that I can draw better tomorrow. Grmpf.
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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(always) want to draw more. Draw draw draw. Maybe tomorrow I'll just binge on pages of simple drawing. But also want to get into more detail with the anatomy. So many things!
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 5, and I am trying this thing of scanning & posting in the middle of the day, after only one shift of drawing is done, with another one still coming up. Feels weird to post before I am "done" with the day, but I hate having the scanning & posting as the last thing I do when I am already sleepy. Would much rather sketch my way to sleep.

#inktober #MastoArt #cats

a page of attempts (lol) at drawing cats from memory or imagination, done in black fountain pen, containing seven sketches overall a page with 3 drawings of cats done in black fountain pen from reference
four sketches of cats done in brown ink, drawn half from imagination half from reference by taking yesterday's skeleton studies and trying to rebuild the whole cats on top of them a page with 3 drawings of cats done in black fountain pen and brush pen from reference
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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Like the last few days I started with a page of mapping the gaps in my understanding by doing a page of sketches from memory & imagination. Then I took yesterday's skeleton studies and tried to reconstruct the whole cats over them on a new sheet of marker paper. That was hard and frustrating and afterwards I relaxed by doing 2 pages of just drawing from reference, the thing I had not gotten around to yesterday.
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The most instructive thing today so far was really that compression-decompression sequence of first drawing cats, then doing rough skeletal analyses of the drawings, and then trying to reconstruct the whole cats just based on their skeletons, without looking back at the original drawings or reference.
a collage of three pages of drawings underneath each other for easier comparison, starting with a page of 4 simple ink drawings of cats from reference at the top, then underneath the page on which I traced their skeletons in blue colored pencil, and then the page on which I tried to reconstruct the whole cats over their skeletons in brown ink at the bottom
Oona is pushing paint around
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That was hard. I failed plenty lol. But it was also very effective in showing up specific places where my mental maps are off: stuff like that I tend to make the heads too small, the ears way too small, and underestimate the volume of the fur.

On top of still not having a grasp of their overall forms in space. Patience! Ugh.

But I don't hate the one in the bottom right corner. At least the lines have a nice flow to them.

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Oona is pushing paint around  
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rest of #catober day 5 yesterday was mostly just relaxed drawing sitting cats from reference. fun.

#inktober #MastoArt #cats

a page with four sketches of different cats sitting on their hind legs, done in black felt tip pen a page with four sketches of different cats sitting on their hind legs, done in black fountain pen
a page with three sketches of cats sitting on their hind legs, done in black felt tip pen and brush pen
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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...and just before bed I did a page of sketching the same thing from imagination, and that one actually felt like a step forward. Or rather two steps forward one step back. Learning isn't linear!

(I like how the first two of those turned out, but the third, well...)

#catober

three sketches of cats sitting on their hind legs, this time done from imagination, also in black felt tip pen
#catober
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Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 6 so far. Continued this morning where I left off last night, drawing sitting cats from imagination. Better than the first few days of gap mapping, but still a bit behind the 2 better ones from yesterday.
three sketches of cats sitting on their hind legs, each a different point of view, done in black felt tip pen
three sketches of cats sitting on their hind legs, each a different point of view, done in black felt tip pen
#catober
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
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Took a break from drawing today in favor of doing annoying things like emails and looking at my bank account (need to calculate in both prep time & recovery for that one lol), but! This is the stuff from yesterday's evening #catober session. So technically still day 6. The tiger construction was me following along with Joe Weatherly's animal anatomy class, the other one just drawing from ref.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats

A constructive drawing in red and blue colored pencil of a tiger seen in 3/4 view from the side and slightly behind, with the blue used to sketch in some basic parts of the skeleton. Some text notes in pencil on the bottom and the right of the tiger.
Four drawings of cats sitting on their hind legs in black ink.
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 8 (7? not sure how to count now that I skipped a day of drawing but not posting 🙃 ). Again with the sequence of knowledge gap mapping, then study page (in this case after some of the teaser pages of The Weatherly Guide to Drawing Cats which can be found here http://www.joeweatherly.com/book/4284/the-weatherly-guide-to-drawing-cats ), then drawing from ref.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats

5 rough sketches of cats drawn from imagination, 3 of them sitting, one walking, and one barely defined at all. some written commentary as well - one of them turned out looking a bit like a dog. four drawings of cats washing themselves in various poses, done in black ink
four studies of cat construction drawings by Joe Weatherly in black ink

Joe Weatherly - Book - The Weatherly Guide to Drawing Cats

www.joeweatherly.com
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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I don't want to move on from the sitting cats before I really got them down, but also I was getting bored, hence the cats washing - they are still sitting on their hind legs! Just in more interesting ways. Funny enough these kinds of poses don't show up much in the animal anatomy classes. Wonder why...
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Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 9 I did draw, but not post. So here it goes. Started with knowledge gap mapping, then 2 pages of studies after The Weatherly Guide to Drawing Cats (http://www.joeweatherly.com/book/4284/the-weatherly-guide-to-drawing-cats).

#MastoArt #inktober #cats

three construction studies of cat hind legs in ballpoint and black felt tip pen eight sketches of cats in various poses from imagination, done in black felt tip pen
one construction study of a cat walking, and 5 construction studies of heads of various felines in black felt tip pen

Joe Weatherly - Book - The Weatherly Guide to Drawing Cats

www.joeweatherly.com
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 10 I just got started, but not sure I will get around to doing much more today, so here goes this morning's sole page of knowledge gap mapping.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats

5 construction sketches of cats from imagination, done in black ballpoint and felt tip pen
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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this was the rest of #catober day 10 😀 Ballpoint is fun for doing constructive studies when I don't want to use pencil/graphite, but it scans pretty badly. Alas.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats

a page with three constructive studies of walking and standing cats in black ballpoint, with the one in the upper left corner partially redrawn in black fountain pen a page with again three constructive studies of standing and walking cats in black ballpoint, with the one in the upper left corner partially redrawn in black fountain pen
a page with four constructive studies of walking and standing cats in black ballpoint
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 11. Had two days that were emotionally exhausting, so no energy for the more demanding pages of knowledge gap mapping or anatomy studies and such. But the simple draw draw draw from ref always works and goes a long way to soothe me.

Halfway through I got annoyed with how small the A4 paper is and how little fits on it and decided to just pack the pages more by using different colored ballpoints. I enjoyed the creepy red pupil-less effect on that one cat 🙃

#MastoArt #inktober

a page with four constructive studies of cats sitting, standing and crouching, in black ballpoint a page with three constructive studies of cats sitting, standing and climbing on a chair, in black and red ballpoint. The sitting cat study is in red, bigger than the others, and I did not fill in her pupils, so she looks pretty creepy.
a page with two constructive studies of cats sitting in black ballpoint a page with four constructive studies of cats standing, standing up on only hindlegs and crouching, in black and red ballpoint, with the black studies overlapping the red ones.
#mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 12 I was drawing but away from my scanner, so here it goes: one page of knowledge gap mapping from memory/imagination, and one anatomy study of hind legs after Gottfried Bammes.

#inktober #cats

5 construction sketches of cats in various poses from imagination, done in black ballpoint
an anatomy study of feline hind legs, seen from behind, with the left leg showing the muscles in red ballpoint pen, and the right leg showing the naked bones in black ballpoint pen
#cats #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 13, again did the drawing but not the scanning, only direct drawings from photos of cougars this time.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats #ballpoint

a page with four constructive studies of walking, standing climbing cougars in green ballpoint pen, some of them overlapping each other to fit more on the page
a page with two drawings of a walking and climbing cougar in green ballpoint pen
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober #ballpoint
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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this was #catober day 14, two pages of mapping knowledge gaps from imagination, one page of anatomy studies, one page of drawing from ref. Not done in that order, but I don't remember the actual order anymore.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats

three construction studies of cats done from memory/imagination, in blue ballpoint pen seven construction studies of cats done from memory/imagination, in green ballpoint pen, the two first ones much larger than the last five
three anatomy studies of cats done in green ballpoint pen three construction studies of cougars done from reference, in green ballpoint pen
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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...and another page of cougars from reference from #catober day 14.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats

three construction studies of cougars done from reference in green ballpoint pen
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 15, one page of knowledge gap mapping, one page of notes on the lesson on spine and ribcage of felines from Joe Weatherly's Animal Anatomy class, a page of studies on the same topic from Gotttfried Bammes, and lastly a page of tigers from ref with ribcages inscribed.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats #anatomy #ballpoint

five sketches of cats in various poses, drawn from imagination in blue ballpoint pen two rows of studies of ribcages, the first row that of a dog, first seen from the front, then 3/4 view, then in profile as attached to the spine. Second row the same sequence only with the ribcage of a cat. These were done after books by Gottfried Bammes.
a study of the spine, skull, ribcage and pelvis of a feline in profile, done following along with Joe Weatherly's class, plus a smaller callout of a ribcage in 3/4 view and separate view of a pelvis from the back, all done in dark red gel pen three drawings of tigers done in red ballpoint, with their spines, skulls and ribcages inscribed in blue ballpoint.
#cats #mastoart #anatomy #inktober #catober #ballpoint
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Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 16 I started with some knowledge gap mapping from memory/imagination (recognize the sitting tiger from the day before, and how my memory distorted it?)...
four ballpoint sketches of felines and three sketches of feline ribcages done from memory
#catober
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... and then did a bunch of pages of memory recall training homework for a class on "drawing from memory and imagination". First page shape analysis from reference (blue), then first attempt at reproducing it from memory (green), made notes on my mistakes, second attempt (red), again some notes, then a third attempt the next day (black).

#catober #MastoArt #exercise #drawingExercise

two drawings of cats enclosed in rasters to more accurately gauge their proportions, surrounded by a bunch of notes in rather small handwriting second attempt at reproducing those cats from memory
the drawings from the previous image redrawn from memory, including the raster, but distorted by my memory, with some notes on what I got wrong last attempt
#mastoart #exercise #catober #drawingexercise
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I am not entirely sure this kind of memory training is the best way to move towards where I want to go, it makes me think in 2d so much, really invites one to simplify into flat graphic shapes. I doubt that doing these teaches me much about the structure of cats in space. It does point out biases in my perception/memory rather mercilessly though, so probably worth it simply for that. And I will stick with them for now just for the sake of the class anyway.
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 17 was another frazzled email writing & preparing for guests kinda day, so just some random sketches of cats from ref

#MastoArt #inktober #cats #caturday

four sketches of standing and crouching cats done in black fountain pen. one of them, of a standing cat, in the upper left corner of the sheet, has a rough approximation of its skeleton inscribed
#cats #mastoart #Caturday #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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#catober day 18 back to my favorites for some simple sphynx cat fun from reference

#MastoArt #ink #inktober #cats

three drawings of hairless sphynx cats sitting and standing, done in black fountain pen, with various degrees of hatching, from none to rather detailed stipling
#cats #Ink #mastoart #inktober #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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...and some memory recall studies also still from #catober day 18 - first an analysis after a page of Weatherly's Guide to Drawing Cats (blue), then first attempt at drawing from memory (green), notes about mistakes I made, second attempt (red), and the last page is trying again the next day (aka catober day 19)(black).
a page with a squared up simplified drawing of a cat seen 3/4 from the back, some notes about proportions, and a quick attempt at imagining what it might look like in profile, all done in blue ballpoint the same image from before redrawn again from memory, with some notes, all in red ballpoint
image from the the page before redrawn - badly - from memory, with some notes, all in green ballpoint the same image from before redrawn again from memory in black ballpoint
#catober
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Oona is pushing paint around  
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day 20 of #catober I was hanging out with friends, so no time for focused studies - but a bunch of surprisingly colorful cat doodles happened anyway 😀 (Not in ink though, so not an inktober day after all...)

#MastoArt #cats

three doodles of cats done in wax crayon. One cat is pink with an orange and blue background, one cat is made up of light blue lines and patches of orange with a dark blue background, and one cat is orange surrounded by pink and blue
two cat doodles, one done in orange walking away from us, and the other done in red walking towards us while mirroring the first cat's pose, with the background filled in with light blue
#cats #mastoart #catober
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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I keep drawing and falling further and further behind with the scanning and posting. Sketchdump incoming to make up some of the distance.

So, this was day 21 of #catober - wanting to draw a lot without thinking about it I decided to just work my way through this set of "cougar" reference images, sketching every single image. There are 500 photos in the set, we'll see how far I'll get.

#MastoArt #inktober #cats

Six quick structural studies of cougars, done in black fountain pen and numbered from 21 to 26. Dated in the upper left corner, and besides the date is a note to self saying "simple forms! NO FACES! NO TOES!" Alas I could not stick to that exhortation, as one of the photos that came up was a close up of a cougar head. Six quick structural studies of cougars, done in black fountain pen and numbered from 9 to 14, plus a sketch of an isolated paw numbered 15. Dated in the upper left corner, and besides the date is a note to self saying "simplified structure only!"
Five quick structural studies of cougars, done in black fountain pen and numbered from 16 to 20. Dated in the upper left corner, and besides the date is a note to self saying "simple structure only! remember Draw A Box!" Three studies of cougars numbered 6 to 8.
#cats #mastoart #inktober #catober
David Revoy
David Revoy  
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Wow :blobaww: cool sketches and studies.
Oona is pushing paint around
Oona is pushing paint around  
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@davidrevoy Hey thank you😀 Also, that exhibition of your art in the big supermarket looks amazing! Such a unique opportunity to be seen by many people who otherwise never hear about you, or maybe usually not look at any art at all.
@David Revoy
David Revoy
David Revoy  
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Thanks 😊 oh yes, I'm still 'digesting' it. A big new step in my carreer.
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