Tabby Cat Portrait

This Tabby cat portrait is a small 5"x 5" in oil, which is ideal for gift giving. It's small size is easy to fit on a side table and a wonderful way to give a one of a kind gift to someone very special. Best yet, the price for these little gems does not break the bank, yet says it's a very special one of a kind gift.

Tabby Cat reference photo

 

The colors in the reference photo were washed out and everything looked rather flat. The objective with this painting was to give the head dimension and make it pop. One way to separate the figure from the background is to really play with contrast. 

underpainting

 First a bunch of colors were randomly placed just to fill the areas of the painting. Depending on the light in the room colors can appear lighter or darker. What is around a figure also effects the tones we see. If you wear a pink t-shirt for example your skin will have a pinkish glow especially under the chin area. This reflective light can turn greenish if you were to wear a green T-shirt.  That's why I place pretty much any color I spot in the painting. See the green tones in the neck area?

With every new layer new paint is added, but just enough to make sure that some of that underlaying color still shines through. I made this video so you can see how the layers are build up towards the finishing of the painting. 

Here is the finished painting ...

 

If you like me to paint a similar portrait of you cat just click below.

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