Roof Patrol

Here's my latest acrylic. It's 5" x 7". I darn near went blind painting it, too. Well, that's a slight exaggeration but it's a lot of tiny details for me. It looks much better at a distance.

Photo courtesy of Lorenz on PMP

Lunch Rush at Chez Dumpsta ~ complete

Almost nine months in the making, it's finally done. Like giving birth, huh? Well, not even close but I'm certainly glad it's done and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Again, it doesn't photograph well but I did my best with my photo editor. I gave it a final coat of gel gloss medium last night, then today I added some of the cat's whiskers with white gelly roll pen. One coat of Krylon gloss varnish spray this afternoon and it was ready for it's close up.

Reference photo courtesy of Margaret Wiles on PMP

Lunch Rush at Chez Dumpsta ~ WIP 2

I've been putzing away at this over the last several days and it still needs a lot of work. I thought I should post an update anyway. BTW, the camera absolutely hates this painting. It actually looks much better IRL which is a switch from my usual. I didn't like the look of the yellow/orange water soluble crayon so I removed it. I was surprised to see it stain areas of the painting. I'm glad I laid down a coat of gloss gel medium over the initial collage paper or it could've been worse.

Kitty Kocktail ~ complete

I finished this one up this morning. It sat staring at me with those big soulful eyes so I had to finish it. I didn't do much actually. Just a bit here and there. Some reflections in the granite countertop, adjusted some values, darkened the tile backsplash, etc. A lot of little fiddles.

Kitty Kocktail ~ WIP 2

I had hopes this was complete but I see some things that need a tweak or two. When I first saw the image on my PC screen I thought I had gotten my grout lines in the background crooked. Turned out to be camera distortion thankfully. I think I may have breathed in enough pastel dust for awhile so I'll fiddle with this just a little bit each day until I'm satisfied and post the final end of the week.

Kitty Kocktail ~ WIP 1

I've finally begun work on this little fella. I decided not to try this in watercolor(I didn't believe I could achieve the soft fuzziness of this kitten) and opted instead for dry media. So far I've used various pastels, Caran D'Ache water soluble crayon and water soluble graphite. I also decided to work on artist quality kraft paper. I love the look of a toned paper with pastel.

Kitty Kocktail ~ drawing

This project may be beyond my expertise as a painter but I want to give it a go anyway. I've never painted a clear glass anything before but there's always a first time.

I met this adorable little kitten this past September at the hair salon I frequent. One of the hairdressers had rescued him and brought him to work because he needed to be feed every 1-2 hours around the clock. He was so tiny he fit in the palm of my hand and he was such a sweet kitten. The stylist that was caring for him had taken a photo of him in a wine glass and she showed it to me on her cellphone. I never forgot it so when I arrived for another hair appointment last week I asked permission to use the image for a painting. Thankfully she still had the photo and gladly she agreed. I know I've drawn this too small already and need to enlarge it. I'm not known for my steady hand so we'll see how well I do. I may have to paint this more than once to get it right.

Mama Luv

I just completed my latest cat painting and I'm pretty happy with it. Shame that my blues appear more red violet in places but I was happy to get a halfway decent photo at all today. It's so gloomy.

I saw Karina's image of a mother cat with her kitten on PMP and knew I had to paint it. Shy kitten, protective mother...a short story, if you will. It speaks to a part of the mother and child bond that exists in both the human world and the animal kingdom, but a very important part. To quote Stephen King, "There's no bitch on earth like a mother frightened for her kids.”
 

Little S-Kittles

The title popped into my head while I was finishing this painting and I think it works. It's been almost a month since I updated my blog so I thought I'd paint some kitties and post them. I have another feline painting ready to go, too.

I was inspired by a photo a friend posted on Facebook, Tracy Meadows. Tracy rescued a litter of kittens recently. He said he found them under his porch and the photo he posted was just too darn cute to pass up. I asked him if I could use it and he obliged. The actual kittens are all a smoky grey so I decided to take a lot of liberty with my palette. And this is my favorite palette....golds and violets. I used DS Quin deep gold, DS Quin Burnt scarlet, DS Quin sienna, DS Carbazole Violet and DS Quin Violet. With these colors I can go just as vibrant or neutral as I want with no mud making involved. Hope you like. 

Crabby Cat is Back

Scary enough?

The first two Crabby Cats

After several inking failures I've been having myself a pout...a regular crabby cat, if you will. What better way to break the gridlock than creating another Crabby Cat. Since Halloween is the next holiday I've been doodling up an idea for the occasion. Just a sketch so far. Thoughts anyone?

Digby Redux ~ complete

I finally settled on a palette for this one and after that, things went pretty fast. I've painted this on Fabriano 140# HP with a color combo I love...Quin. Gold, Carbazole Violet and Quin. Sienna. I added a little FUB to the violet and the camera really picked it up. Hopefully I'll be able to get a better photo with colors that are more true to life when the light is better. It's too sunny today. I worked from the original photo and the posterized version so it turned out slightly stylized but I kinda like it! 

Digby Redux ~ value drawing

Value drawing

Posterized version #2

Posterized version #1

And not a good value drawing, I might add. I half traced, half sketched his outline onto tracing paper. At the time I didn't plan to add much more to it. However, I started fooling around with a grade B graphite pencil and one thing lead to another. I loved this reference photo. A white cat backlit by the sun. Very dramatic. I wanted to get the values sorted out but tracing paper is not a good substrate for this mission. A large amount of graphite will almost fall off it and certainly wipes off at the slightest touch. I found as much on my hands as on the paper. I did wind up putting the original image into GIMP, greyscaled it and posterized it to get a better idea.

I never tire of including Digby in my artwork. He was a wonderful subject to photograph and wonderful companion to me for many years. In my reference photo he is waiting 'patiently' for me to open the door and let him outside. I can see his patience is wearing thin by the upward flick of the tip of his tail. Gosh, I miss him.    

Raven ~ drawing

I was looking through some old picture folders a few days ago and stumbled onto a photo of Raven I had completely forgotten I'd taken. I still don't remember taking that particular shot but it's clear enough to use for a portrait. Even though she's been gone since 2007 I haven't painted her portrait because I didn't think I had any decent photos of her. Not that I didn't try but black cats are difficult to photograph. I've always felt bad that I've never honored her memory in this way. She was the most beautiful black cat I've ever seen. Fur like silk and her eyes were the most incredible shade of green/gold with a bit of turquoise around the irises. Her ears were big and round. When she ran she would fold them back against her head and she looked like she was flying. For that reason my youngest son named her Raven. I hope I'm able to capture her beauty and spirit in a portrait.

The Timekeeper's Cottage ~ complete

SOLD

Although it doesn't look like I made any changes, I made a few. I used blending solution to bleed some background color into the lilies and the cat. They looked too stark before, at least to my eye. The image doesn't show it but I also added some Pearl Mixative to the large key and the hour glass to bring them both out of the background. Fighting the urge to fiddle anymore, I put my inks down and called this complete. Some of the ink colors are as difficult to photograph as they are to scan. An example is the 'neon' blue in the upper left corner. That passage isn't anywhere near as 'violent' IRL. The Moon isn't as muddy as it appears here either. I also decided not to re-ink the areas where the Micron pen was washed away by the alcohol inks. I like the lost edges.

Note: The only problem with using rubbing alcohol with Ranger inks is it's tendency to dull the shiny finish. I'm going to apply several coats of Krylon gloss UV protectant varnish to bring back the shine and make the colors appear more vibrant.

The Timekeeper's Cottage ~ WIP 3



Nothing is more scary or knot-in-the-stomach exciting as spending hours drawing, transferring and inking a piece only to turn little tiny bottles of alcohol ink loose on what you painstakingly created with absolutely no idea what will happen. I thought watercolor was unpredictable but this medium trumps it hands down. As I've worked with these inks and have come to know how they can react with each other I went in with a vague idea of what I wanted to happen but knew it may not become a reality. This piece is roughly 10 1/2" x 17" and painted in portrait format (obviously). Alcohol ink dries incredibly fast so the challenge was to keep it moving while I added various colors and 17" is a long run. Anything could and did happen as these inks moved down the Yupo. Some cool textures formed and some very interesting secondary colors appeared.



Right after the pour. The masking is still in place. Yikes!

I had decided at the beginning I would use rubbing alcohol to move the inks because the blending solution tends to dilute the colors and I wanted to keep the dark colors dark. I also knew this would be a one shot deal. I had already masked off the areas I wanted to save and hand paint later like the Moon, the moths, the window openings, the cat and the lilies. I wish now I had masked off the larger key but I may be able to work with it or I may decide to leave it. You can see a shape there and it invites the viewer to come in for a closer look.

 

 



The Timekeeper's Cottage ~ sketch

While I was still working on Thistle Downs I began this sketch and completed it this afternoon. I've dubbed it 'The Timekeeper's Cottage' because I wanted to add an old clock and it kind of went from there. I also liked the idea of the oversized key and keyhole and of course I had to get a cat into the picture somewhere. Not sure how all that ties into a timekeeper but it's my drawing so I can add whatever I choose! Question: Has a pre-painting sketch ever told you what colors it needs (?) because this sketch is telling me it needs blues and purples. I'll have to sort out my palette and see what works best, though.

I was introduced to a new term recently....Zentangles. It's basically doodle art taken to an entirely new level. I discovered that various patterns have names and are typically done with Micron pen. The pattern I added to my crescent moon is a zentangle. It will receive more line work once I start inking my drawing on Yupo. I'll leave a link for anyone interested in experimenting with zentangles. I believe anyone that works with pen and ink could incorporate some of these patterns into their work to create added interest.

 http://tanglepatterns.com/tag/zentangle  

Studio Cat 2 ~ sketch

First sketch for Studio Cat 2. I wanted to include the same elements and shapes from the first painting but switched around. Working off a basic theme/concept but with a purely decorative intention is proving to be a challenge. The flowers will be on the vase, not in it. I wanted to keep the fan shapes from the tray and also the stripes. The fan shape has now become a Japanese paper fan, the stripes are on the 'wallpaper'. The cat has been stylized and will remain completely white. I borrowed the tea cup in the lower right corner from one of Shirley's pieces. Thanks, Shirley!

The Studio Cat ~ complete

I finished this one yesterday but some buckling occurred that needed to be corrected so I wasn't able to photograph it until today and, of course, it's very gloomy outside. I did the best I could with my photo editor. This is a painting I've needed to get on paper for months. It has been rattling around in my head but I just wasn't able to bring it together until I studied Shirley Trevena's work. I know....it looks nothing like Trevena's work but her (sometimes)blatant disregard for perspective, placement of objects, etc. gave me the impetus to get it done. I'm not a still life painter but it's a direction I'd love to explore. I plan to do this painting again, this time more in Trevena's style and see what happens. I like surprises(mostly).

Another Doob Cat w/GIMP

When I'm stuck or between projects I love to play with Mr Doob ,a free online digital art program. This is my latest 'Doob Cat'. I'm getting better at drawing with my computer mouse. I'm also getting better using the editing tools in GIMP, a photo editing program that has many of the capabilities of Adobe Elements. GIMP is also available online for free download. The cat was 'drawn' in black on a white background with the various brushes/effects that Doob offers, saved to My Pictures and then opened in GIMP where I added color and more shape with GIMP's various tools and brushes. The first image is how my cat looked after I initially created it in Mr Doob. The second image is the results after adding color and effects with GIMP.  http://www.gimp.org/  (hot link)

A Cat of Color

My latest alcohol ink project. Yup, another cat. I noticed when I wiped a failed painting off the Yupo with isopropyl alcohol it left behind some pale color. A pleasant, rather neutral watercolor affect emerged. A perfect background for many subjects. I lightly scored the shape of a cat into the Yupo with an Exacto knife. Then I added more ink. I made sure to use one of the darker inks, (in this case, Eggplant), then wiped that away. The ink settled into the score lines as I had hoped. When this was dry I filled in the shape of the cat with more ink, using a small paint brush. I'm very pleased with the results!

7/27/2012 - Prints of A Cat of Color are now available via Imagekind: http://www.imagekind.com/A-Cat-of-Color-art?IMID=534cc677-63e4-4fb6-af8b-fb031152ba33