Day one: A friend of mine recommended me to someone who wanted a painting done of their cat. So I met them at Alterra coffee-house a neutral place where we could meet about commissioning a portrait of a cat named Bartholomew/Bart. We Looked at photograph’s, I said I could do this painting and then signed a contract I brought along.
Day two: I reviewed photos, did some sketches, e-mailed client back and waited for confirmation.
Day two: Confirmation from client, printed image and picked up canvas.
Day three: Did grid and started drawing on canvas.
Day four: Still drawing image onto canvas. This is a crucial part of the process getting everything right from the start although it all gets covered with paint.
Day five: I started with a basic under painting worked on background and went straight into the fabric.
Day six: I began with the eyes the most important part. I need to get the eyes perfect.
Day seven: Worked on the face of cat and whiskers.
Whiskers really helped painting.
Day eight: painted the ears.
Day seven: I needed to darken the pattern on the fabric. Darkening some fur shadows and added fluffy accents throughout cat giving it more shape and form so it looks like a 3-dimensional cat also filled in front of sofa.
Day eight: Worked on tail made it longer and changed background.
Day nine: Worked on the paws or the impression of the paw.
Day ten: Touched up shape of head and edges of fur.
Day eleven: Pushed more dark shadows and white areas.
Day twelve: Ears and ear hairs needed some work.
Day thirteen: I always keep coming back to the eyes.
Day fourteen: Worked on back leg, body shape and pattern.
Day fifteen: Finished. e-mail client confirm pick up date.
day sixteen: Went with hooks on back of painting/attached.
Day seventeen: Coffee shop 9:00 dropped of painting. Waitress walks by and says it’s brilliant. It catches me off guard. I laugh. They like painting. It was exactly what they expected.
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