I went as far as I could on the kitten before adding the background. I'd like some of the fur on the ears and head to extend over the background color so it was time to decide exactly what kind of a background suited this fella. I did a little research on Maine Coon cats and learned that their coats have evolved to accomodate cold weather conditions. I decided to create a winter-like setting by mixing up some winter colors, in this case Payne's grey with FUB, and doing a wash which turned into more of a controlled pour. I tilted my board on a 45° angle and did the left side first with the painting turned upside down. When that was dry I did the same thing on the right side with the board right side up so as not to disturb the paint on the kitten. I threw a bit of salt on while the paint was still wet to add some snowflakes and Voila! Windy winter sky. The results are subtle and not as grey as they appear in the image.
In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to increase some of the values, mostly on the stripes in the fur. There's obviously some overkill in a few areas so I will have to adjust the other stripes accordingly. There's work left to do on the ears and head and some tweaking to do on the exterior of the body.
4 comments:
Billie, this is looking fantastic! I really like the background the salt was just the right touch.
Thank you, Krista! I'm thrilled you like it.:) This one has required more tweaking than I like to do so it's good to hear feedback like this. I've fiddled with this painting for so long I've begun to lose my objectivity. I've got it under weights now to work out the buckling but it's so humid here at the moment I'm afraid to remove the weights just yet. I'll post the final(?)when this humidity leaves.
On reading your update, you have put so much work and thought into this piece Billie and the results are just marvellous, congratulations! The delicate colour palette is gorgeous, echoing the kittens softness.
Thank you for allowing us to share in your process, so generous!
Thanks once again , Perugina.:) I thought this kitten was too cute to pass up. I hope I've done him justice.
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