Caramel the Orange Cat

Another cat portrait today. I tried a softer shading style with this one. I was feeling a little lazy so I was hoping to come up with a quicker, sloppier shading style that didn't compromise on the finished look. Still prefer the crisp shading, but that's what experiments are for, I guess.

"Caramel", Digital, February 2013

There's a gift shop in town with decorative items like paper mache cats and painted wooden giraffes. I always liked that they gave each piece a name on the price tag. You weren't just buying a mosaic penguin, you were buying a mosaic penguin named "Larry". I think that's adorable. So I'm thinking about naming the critters I draw. This handsome fellow I'm calling Caramel (most likely because My Kitchen Rules was playing in the background while I was drawing him).

Loving the gradient backgrounds too.

Walking Cat

This is a photomanipulation from last year. I was using my phone to take photos of my friend's sister's cat (read: being an oddball) and I thought this one had interesting composition. The problem was, the cat was walking quickly in a dimly lit room at the time and the picture was blurred. After playing a bit in Photoshop, I got this posterised, slightly abstract version which I quite like. Playing with the saturation had some interesting effects too, considering this was a cream coloured cat on cream coloured carpet.

"Walking Cat", Photomanipulation, April 2012

Wow, didn't realise I made this so long ago until I checked the date on the file. My art endevours really were quite  sporadic last year. At least now I have my blog to keep me on track. That is, if I have something new to post before another week has flown by. I've been working on abstracts for scrapbooking papers again today, and though I love them, I don't know if I want a huge streak of blog posts devoted to them.

Maybe I should colour that beagle I sketched yesterday...

Charlie and Lily

So glad to have this one finished. I've been working on it since before Christmas, but couldn't quite get it how I wanted. This is one of my few forays into using acrylic paint and canvas. Paint really isn't my medium - too messy, too hard to control. I've seen such pretty effects, some lovely glowing, luminescent backgrounds done by some very talented painters. However, that particular effect illudes me, and when I can achieve that so much easier with Photoshop I'm not going to worry about it for now.

"Charlie and Lily", Coloured Pencil and Acrylic, December 2012

The cats in this picture are Charlie and Lily. I drew them for a friend for a Christmas present, which is why I spent so long tinkering with it to make sure it looked right. In the end, I made some colourful collage elements using coloured pencil and glued them on to the background to lighten it up. The cats themselves are also drawn with felt tip pen and coloured pencil.

I might redraw this digitally in future, just to see the difference in style it makes. Will definitely have more background pattern/texture options that way. Either way, Merry Extrodinarily Unbearably Late Christmas, Becky. I hope you like it.

The Orange Neighbour Cat

I like to take pictures of people's pets. I always try to grab a few photos on my phone whenever I come across a dog or cat. This picture is based on a photo of my neighbours cat when it wandered over to our house one day. I thought it was an interesting photo, but had a few artistic flaws which I made magically disappear with artistic licence (my brother sitting just inside the frame, for example).

Looking at it now, I probably should have used a couple of shades of orange fur to get his cute little head markings, but aah well. Maybe next time I draw him. Overall, I'm very pleased with how it came out, especially the background. I've seen pet portraits with patterned, busy backgrounds by other artists and I like the effect. I'd like to work more of my patterns into the rest of my art.

"On a Mission", Photoshop, January 2013