The LAST Cat ... a Work in Progress

My sketch with some values indicated

Masked out two tiny highlights in the eyes, then did a wet/wet wash with aureolin and dropped in some orange. Started the nose and mouth with some black made of orange, violet and dark blue.

Added some pupils.

Some direct painting of the darkest areas on her face, and a thin wash of red-orange in her ears. 

An all-over wet wash of violet, made of quin. rose and indanthrone.

Then a wet wash of the black.

More glazing of the eyes - a thin burnt orange with a dark purply-brown dropped in to indicate shadows and roundness. At this point, I have done about five or six glazes on the eyes.

I had to borrow a photo from the internet, as the one sent to me as reference was almost unreadable. If I didn't know it was a cat beforehand, I wouldn't know what it was.

Another internet photo - this one for the eye color.

This was my first attempt using the photo the owner sent. UH ... NO!

More to come today. I feel I am back in a good place again, especially with painting. I have two others I am working on, and some good ideas for the dog portrait and the seiner fishing boat.

Thank you for dropping by!!!

And Yet Another Cheshire Cat Makes Its Appearance ... watercolor study of cat portrait

The model

This was my second attempt. I just flipped the paper over, and re-traced the outline, hence the reversed image. For some reason, I had to start with the striping.

First washes for the eyes [aureolin, quin. burnt orange and cobalt blue] and the nose [quin. burnt orange and quin. rose].

A wet-in-wet wash over  the face - orange and pink for the eye areas and lower portion of the face, and  a grey made with aureolin, pink and cobalt blue for the rest.

Some dry brush on the stripes

Another few glazes on the eyes - quin. gold, burnt orange and cobalt and indanthrone blue.

Yay ... ears!

Some final fussy details with dry brush, and this is done as a color study. Overall, I like the colors, and the nose and eyes. I think, for the final version, I will do the striping differently [but NOT hair by hair!]

Thank you so much for dropping by!

"CATAWAMPUS" ... Another Process, This Time a Poured Watercolor

I must have used a quarter of a large bottle of masking fluid.

I poured, using permanent rose, aureolin and indanthrone in very dilute applications.

I masked some more, and did another  application of the same colors. I missed photographing the next step. There I went from pink to alizarin crimson to get darker shadows.

CATAWAMPUS
32.5 x 19.5 cm.

This is the painting now, in need of some careful glazing here and there, but basically done.
I love that word "catawampus" - it means kitty-cornered or at an angle. As my purpose and focus with this painting was the backlighting on the cat creating that angled shadow, I thought the name perfect.

Pumpkin obliged for the reference photo.

Thank you so much for dropping by - hope you enjoyed your visit!