Portrait of Black and Brown Tabby In Progress

I mailed off the portrait of the Persian Cat called “Cupcake” yesterday and have my fingers crossed that it makes it to its destination in Canada in time for Christmas. With no time to waste I have worked on a portrait of a black and brown tabby, which has a bit of Siamese mixed in. Her  name is Bailey and she lives in California. Her owner said she can usually be found hunched over or perched on the edge of a table or counter watching everything that is going on around her.  Since this painting is a small one, measuring only 6 x 6 inches, I thought why not go for an extreme close-up. I will continue to build the paint layers and post another up-date soon.

Photo Submission by Client for Bailey’s Portrait 

I usually ask that clients send me several reference photos, because by doing so I can get a better feel for the overall features and colors of my subjects. I seldom receive “wau” photos, by which I mean photos with perfect lighting and especially in focus, but after years of painting portraits you get a feel for what to do to bring a portrait to life.  Because of the crazy amount of stripes and color variation in this cats fur, I started by working backwards. I put in all the markings that are unique to Bailey first and then proceeded with shaping the flat two-dimensional image into something more dimensional.

Bailey portrait in its drawing stage

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