I have been looking forward to these guys and gals for a while, so it is lovely to finally get stated on their pet painting. Three beautiful, predominantly white with splashes of ginger, cats!
I love long, thin paintings. I really enjoy doing something that is totally different to the normal pet portrait size commission and this is obviously one of those!
Here is the reference photo I will be using for their portrait.
Unfortunately the photo reference is taken using flash, which is not ideal, but my client has supplied lots of other photos taken without flash so I can avoid the flash reflection in their eyes and get their colouring correct. You would be surprised at how much flash can effect things like that! Any light can, that is why I generally advise, if you can, to take reference photos on a bright but over cast day.
Below you can see them sketched out ready for me to start their portrait tomorrow.
Hopefully it’s not too feint and you can see it OK. I am ready to sketch out my next cat portrait, a black and white cat called Theo. Leo and Theo! That’s going to be confusing!
Finally getting a good look in on this gorgeous trio of cats. I have been so looking forward to getting my teeth into it, so to speak. As I said before it is going to be tricky as the reference photo was taken using flash, so I am having to flip between other reference photos to help with eye colouring and the shadows that flash can create, making things look slightly unatural. I have done this with many portraits before so it shouldn’t be too tricky, but care must be taken not to be a slave to the reference photo.
I have started blocking in their ginger patches, as they are predominantly white it hasn’t taken long. to fill these areas in. If you look at the reference photograph you see the patches are ginger tabby like. Two have green eyes and one has amber, a stunning colour. Both myself and the client are undecided on the background, but I am thinking a pale sage green. I shall finish a bit more on them and send her a photo an we can have a chat. The frame is already here. I am hoping that I will get this one finished by the end of the weekend and then it will be on to a beautiful dog portrait who’s owner is having her painted in pastel and watercolours. I might sketch out her watercolour one tonight actually. After the stress of the week and the apparent awful update which has killed my traffic I need a bit of light and colour in my life. I feel very sad 15 years has been quashed by a daft algorithm update that makes no sense whatsoever and no means to contact google direct.
I have just read back this blog to see where I left off, goodness, I was having a moan yesterday, all of it is still valid, but I am sure you don’t want to hear it. Apologies for the rant!
These troublesome trio are taking their time coming together, however I have blocked in most of their white bodies and faces and filled in most of their ginger markings so I really feel like it is taking shape and I am getting to grips with them now. A few more hours work on them tomorrow and I will be emailing my client with a progress shot and to discuss potential background ideas. I want to get the background in before I add in all the final details. I would really like to get them finished by the end of the weekend and get started on Indy’s second portrait. You can see her first, a watercolour pet portrait in her blog
I thought it was about time I actually uploaded some progress shots of this gorgeous trio. I keep talking about them but you have yet to see how the cat portrait is coming along!
You can see the various stage of building up the layers and I never put white down first with white fur except for the absolutely whitest parts. I find building up from dark to light with white animals is generally the best way to create depth with white fur.
You may notice I have made their ginger fur a different colour to the reference photo. This is because flash was used in the photo for the main reference. In reality they are a much lighter ginger colour. More like my Murray. I shall have a dig around and find a couple of other photos I am using to help get their colouring more accurate.
Sorry I have been so slow in updating this blog. I have been working long days, juggling kids and various other bits and pieces being that it the Easter holidays. I hope you all have something lovely planned, I just have work! I don’t mind, I need to catch up, but I need to think of something nice to do with the kids at some point. Maybe Creams mmmmm!
Anyway I have finally finished this gorgeous trio, the scan was proving tricky as it kept wanting to dull down the white. I don’t think it likes scanning in bright whites. In the end a phone photograph seemed to represent the paintings colours better! Modern technology eh! Don’t forget you can also read about Theo’s pet portrait here.
Anyway I shall put the scan up for you and also you a photo of the framed portrait so you can see the finished article. Overall I am delighted with how it has turned out and my client is driving a long way to pick it up next weekend!
Managed to get the three of them framed today also. They were framed in one of my favourite mouldings. Dark wood, simple frame that works well with most of my pet portraits. I have many mouldings to chose from though, for your pet portrait. Please contact me to dicuss any questions you may have.
