Monday, May 16, 2011

Rising to the Cat & Caboodle Challenge



Wide-Eyed Wonder Kitty © 2011 Karen Mathison Schmidt
5 x 7 inches • oil on Gessobord

SOLD • private collection • Stamford, Connecticut

This painting was my response to this week’s Daily Paintworks Cat and Caboodle Challenge submitted by Dreama Tolle Perry. Thanks to Dreama for providing a subject with such a sweet face!

Here are some of my work-in-progress photos:

First, the initial sketch in purple acrylic -- I think she has too much of a smile, but I’ll fix that later.


A glaze of  turquoise in the background area ...


... then, a yellow glaze over the cat ...


...and a red glaze over the cat, except for the eyes!


After the acrylic underpainting is completely dry, I start adding the oils, 
starting with the eyes and working my way outward.



Here I’ve started toning down her smile a bit:



Here I’ve started adding in the background, loosely, 
so the green underpainting shows through in places:


In the final painting you can see I did away with the yellow-gold circles 
in the sofa fabric. I thought they were too busy; 
they took too much attention away from this sweet kitty face.


And you can see also how I toned down her smile, 
giving her more of an air of concentration.

7 comments:

Elizabeth McCrindle said...

Saw this Challenge yesterday and immediately thought of your kitty paintings....I was right you would make a great job of it :)

Dean H. said...

Love your approach and the resulting beautiful color, Karen!

Crystal Cook said...

I've got to tell you that I just happened to see your cat painting on the DPW site and just fell in love with your style! Wow, it's beautiful. :) Can't wait to go take a peek at your other stuff.

SYLVIANE said...

Very nice painting, and it's so interesting to learn about your steps!

Helen Read said...

This is adorable! And so nicely painted!

Virginia Floyd said...

I'm so glad you entered this challenge. I thought of you too, when I saw the reference photo. I love that you show the steps in your painting. Just beautiful!

Maria Baluis said...

Beautiful work. So glad to have found your blog through the DPW site. Thank you for taking the time to share about your painting process. I look forward to following your blogs.