New cat painting work-in-progress

The garden painting, If Monet’s Poppies Were in My Garden, the work in progress that I’ve been showing in my last few posts, sold even as I was putting the last touches on it; I love it when that happens! I neglected to take a final photo before the sun went down today, so I’ll show the final version tomorrow ... Limited Edition prints will be available.

CAT PAINTING WORK-IN-PROGRESS • 6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM

I just love it when I walk in a room in my house and see something that literally takes my breath away. In this case it was this still life with Ray napping amongst some books stacked on the desk. This is the shady side of the house, so the light coming in the window was really soft, but still bright enough to cause those “lost edges,” one of the things that make a scene like this so interesting to paint.

Here are the work-in-progress photos so far:

I did the initial sketch in pencil, and brushed over it with black acrylic. Then a glaze of cadmium yellow deep, using acrylic glazing medium mixed with the paint.

 Next, over the whole thing I added a glaze of magenta ...

 Then a glaze of pthalo blue. I kept the brush strokes really sketchy and uneven.

After the underpainting was good and dry (after about 20 or 30 minutes or so), I started adding the oils, starting off with some of the darker and medium areas of Ray’s fur, mostly black, white and burnt umber, with a smidge of French ultramarine in the gray areas.

Next I added just a few of the lightest highlights, so I could get a sense of how dark my darks and mediums were really going to look.

The pitcher was FUN to do, with those little highlights, and colors reflected from the books, which I now start to paint and get a sense of how their shapes are defined by the sunlight and shadows.

Just the merest suggestion of the shapes of words and letters is enough to give the impression of titles on the spines of the books. 

Check back tomorrow for the finished painting. I’m sure I’ll come up with a title by then!