This commissioned 8x8in oil portrait is two Savannah cats that were sisters. These beautiful cats have the most amazing looking fur that I will try to recreate in this portrait commission.
In my opinion it is worth the extra time and effort to make a painting look its absolute best and that often starts with the reference photo. As you can see one of the cats is partially hidden in this photo. In order to fix this I cropped her out of the photo using the magic tools within Photoshop. That of course left me with a portion of the cats face missing. After some search I found some look alike and was able to reconstruct the missing face part. The cat in the background is actually crosseyed and I figured rather than emphasizing that fact I keep that eye slightly more blurred.
Now that the reference photo is more to my liking it is time to start painting. First the underpainting to place the figures on the canvas and to figure out the overall color scheme. I like to call this the ugly duckling stage of the painting process.
Once the rough color has been placed the modeling of the heads can start. This painting will undergo many stages, yet every stage is a step closer to the finish line.
Stay tuned for more updates ....
