Monday 9 November 2009

Portrait of a Cat, almost finished




8" x 10" Coloured Pencil on Dark Grey Colorfix sanded paper

I started this pic yesterday and continued today - about 8 hours work so far.  Prior to this I had been struggling with a still-life set up which was driving me nuts so I gave up on it to preserve my sanity.  I then reminded myself of the old adage that when you become bereft of inspiration for your art, it's good to draw something you love.  So that is what I've done!

This is a picture of Keith, one of my beloved cats.  Keith is the quietest one of the bunch, he is very serene and good-natured and this is a typical pose of him.  Poor Keith - I spent a long time staring at his face to get a better idea of the detail and his eye colours, I think he thinks I've flipped my lid!

He has one pink ear and a very pink nose which I've tried to capture.  I'm out of practice with cat portraits and on screen it's looking rather too 'photographic' for my liking.  Never mind, I shall put it away for a couple of days and then do some tweaking when the flaws in it will no doubt become more glaringly obvious.  I'm using Prismacolor, all the lovely warm greys, and Derwent Coloursoft pencils.      

7 comments:

Carolina said...

He looks so serene and lovely. I just can't see what needs to be 'fixed', it looks perfect to me! Just for curiosity, I'll keep an eye on you to see what changes/improvements you come up with :):):)
Best regards,
Carolina

Janet Pantry said...

Hehehe, thanks Carolina! I think you have the measure of me - I'm never satisfied!

Ines Giers said...

He looks so gorgeous, cannot wait to follow your progress :-)
(Keith looks quite similar to my cat, so that will encourage me to try a portrait myself)
Best wishes
Ines

Janet Pantry said...

Thanks Ines, he is a lovely cat, glad you like it!

Felicity Grace said...

I think it's absolutely wonderful! I love his name too!

Paula Pertile said...

Keith is lovely. And what a cool name for a cat!
He looks 'finished' to me, but what do I know?

Janet Pantry said...

Thanks, you lovely people! Felicity, I do miss your lovely sketches...no pressure tho, I can wait. Paula, you probably know a lot more than me!

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