I’ve completed the under painting on Rock’s portrait. I’m using two reference photos – the left is obviously the pose for the portrait, the right photo for coat and eye color accuracy.

I’ve used a palette of burnt umber, burnt sienna, indigo, cadmium orange for the darkest hues in his coat. (You can see my normal palette colors up above the reference photos, too!) I used mid tones for the primary coat shadow and lighter tones for the eye area. You can see the previous progress here.

Once this under painting is dry, I’ll start applying fur one stroke at a time, building those layers from dark to light over the top of these dark colors to give it dimension and life.

Stay tuned, this portrait will be back on my easel tomorrow for the final painting session!

I completed Mari’s portrait today! You can see her previous progress here, and I’ll post the final scan once the piece has dried.

This is a 5″ x 7″ custom cat portrait in oil. I’ve used a canvas panel for Mari’s portrait so it’s a very portable painting, destined for an active person who will take her portrait along on travels.

If you’d like to order a custom portrait and want to have a look at my pricing, you can do that right here in my shop!

I finished the background and started the under painting on Rock’s portrait – I’ll get the rest of his under painting completed today and share it tomorrow.

I expect to complete Mari’s portrait at some point today, so I’ll be posting that completed painting later on. I got about halfway through yesterday before wrapping it up to tend to the girls and get the little one off to her very first swim lesson.

I’ve got a lot on my easel – so off to work I go! I hope you’re doing well and staying dry (and warm)!

I’ve completed ACE’s portrait today, this is a digital pic of him (caution: wet paint!). I’ll get a scan once the painting is dry.

You can see his previous work in progress here, with the under painting beside the photo.

Tabby cats are always interesting painting because they have salt & pepper fur that can be a challenge to paint! I start first going over the under painting with a dark tone, followed by a creamy tone, then further enhance the darks. I worked in the warm whites and then completed the painting by going over and painting in all the whitest furs and whiskers – only this time I did a little fancy signature, where I painted my sig before the whiskers, then painted whiskers “through” my sig and one whisker lying on the top. I thought that would give it more dimension.

Would you like your own custom painting? This 4″ x 4″ custom portrait in oil is just $55 in my shop! Order yours today!

I hope you have a great weekend! I’ll be working in the garden, grilling, and gardening s’more!

I’ve sketched up a new cat portrait today, this is Rock. His portrait is on a 6″ x 6″ canvas panel, and I’ll be painting his background a nice deep olive color as soon as I get the go-ahead on the sketch.

Right now I have several cat paintings in my studio at one stage or another – and plan to dive in tomorrow and start finalizing those portraits. I’ve had some delays on a few projects, so I am going to have to table them so that I can get things finished in a timely manner. I am really out of sorts with being so far off schedule!

If you’re interested in this sized portrait, you can find my 6″ x 6″ portrait package right here in my shop.

I worked this gorgeous long haired Siamese cat portrait today in pencil. Her name is Zoey, and her portrait is an ample 8″ x 10″. I’ve sent the proof along to my client for her review, but wanted to share her today with you as well.

Zoey’s reference photo has her lying in a heap of tissue paper (she was working away at shredding it into confetti, my guess is there must have been a graduation party coming up), so in lieu of drawing something not everyone would recognize, I opted to place her on her favorite white oval braided rug. It translates better (though my daughter asked if it was a dinner plate. Not kidding. Would you like fries with that?) – my littlest Chickeymonkey’s reaction was “ooooh FLUFFY!” and that was perfect for me. Fluffy on a dinner plate.

In all seriousness, I love to get the first reactions from my girls because it tells me if the portrait needs more work. It’s honest and raw. In this case, I was already pleased (hence the signature) so their confirmation (after we cleared up the rug thing) was all I needed to feel finished with the portrait.

Don’t forget to enter to win a custom portrait in my weekly giveaway!

 

I was hoping to paint wet in wet and complete ACE’s portrait in one session, but that isn’t going to happen. The salt and pepper variation in his fur makes that much more difficult – the light turns dark and dark turns light to mud, so I’m stopping for the day and will finish his painting in the next session.

Still, he’s a lovely work in progress – and I’m enjoying the green and blue tints in his eyes!

I’ll update again with a pic of the completed portrait within the next few days.

I’ve completed Mari’s under painting as well. I really like the tones in this one, I used cadmium orange mixed with a bit of indigo and magenta into white for the shadows on the white, and it’s given her such a warm tone. Her pupils were washed out in her reference photo so filling them in really puts her personality on the canvas!

As promised the background shade is much more accurate in this progress shot now that the under painting is complete. Those bright colors definitely needs something to balance against!

You can see her previous progress here, and her initial sketch against the photo here. If you’d like to just go ahead and order your own custom portrait (this one is a 5″ x 7″) you can do that here!

I spent a good chunk of the day painting today after updating my portfolio with 8 new projects!

Cuddles’ under painting is complete. A bit flat and muddy right now, once this layer is dry I will go through and apply all the detail fur and feathers, and she will be a glowing, angelic tuxedo kitty.

You can view her previous work in progress stage here.