Cats! More Cats!

Today when I left the studio, I didn't count how many cat oil paint studies I have as of today, but I'm sure it's close to two dozen - maybe more. Here's my favorite one so far; I think it has the highest "cute" rating:

This study (and the others in this post) will be worked on a bit more - perhaps not much at all, as I'm satisfied with it as it is at this stage. Maybe all I'll do is add some whiskers. The background colors are the remnants of an earlier landscape study on this masonite panel. I like working on top of previous works and in this case, the existing pattern of colors added greatly to the white areas of the kitten's chest, belly and legs. THis painting measures 7 x 9 inches. Below are two close-ups of details from this work. First, the face. If this were a real kitten, I'd take it home!

In the next detail, the positive contribution of the underlying painting's colors is especially great in the legs and body. Click on the images in this post to see them in a larger format.

The next photos posted here are studies based on a few of the very few responses I got to a facebook posting I made several months ago when I called for 100 pets to paint in 100 days. No strings attached. The low "turn out" was disappointing (five pets from four people) so it blew my project. 

But yesterday I decided to do small studies of those pets that were submitted to the project. These are not "complete" yet, though like the kitten shown above, I might leave them as they are. The next few days at the studio will see what happens. 

This oil study is of a cat named Bizou. It is oil paint on masonite panel and measures about 5.5 x 8 inches

Here's a detail from the study of Bizou. This cat has some interesting markings on its muzzle and also two little "freckles" of color on each of its forelegs:

This next study is of a cat named Hobbes. In the photo Hobbes was stretched out on a wooden deck. The owner indicated that Hobbes had not survived an encounter with a vehicle. With that thought, I decided to portray Hobbes as if lying on a grassy space. Besides some adjustments to the cat's coat color and whiskers to add, I also envision painting some gone-to-seed dandelions in. Those will represent both the fleeting and the promise of life. This study measures about 7 x 9 inches.

In the detail shown below, you can see the transparency of some of the colors as they are layered one over the other. This was a fun cat to paint.

Okay, so this next one is not a cat. There were three different dogs submitted. This one is named Sam. A very fine looking fellow. As with the other studies posted here, this one is photographed on the easel and so there is some light bounce from the surface that could not be avoided with the camera. Like the others, this is also an oil paint on masonite. Although the eyes haven't been done yet, the work reads well at this stage. It measures about 7 x 9 inches