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I don't know why i thought this would be easy!
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Message
Posted
I'm painting this for a friend, of there cat that has passed away :( i thought - a black cat, on grass, can't be that hard! boy was i wrong! Ended up stopping and searching this site for advice before I carried on! Mixed my own black from burnt umber and ultramarine blue, and then changed the balance / added a little white where needed. I need to finish the face and then add in a little more detail all over. I hope they like it - feels like a big responsibility seeing as their little one isn't here any more!
Posted
Painting black fur is never easy - in any medium. Did you have to work from a photo? Even worse - you don't get the variation in tone, the sheen on the fur, even in the best of photographs. I painted a black and white dog of indeterminate breed, and drew a Labrador/Rottweiler cross in pencil; among the most difficult commissions I've ever had.
If you've got the cat's character, they'll like it; I should say you probably had, but I didn't know her of course. You can but try, and do your best. My customers were happy - hope yours are too.
Posted
i did have to work from a photo, but luckily i have got it electronically so i can fiddle with the settings a bit to get a better idea of the light source / tones etc - but not perfect. Your commission sounds like a challenge - I definitely under estimated this one!
I do think i've captured the character - always fixated on their toy (bottom of painting) so yes, hopefully they will like it,
Posted
You can get size 1, 0, or 00 brushes, but oddly enough I find a much thicker brush with a fine point is better for whiskers - you can end up sort of knitting them in paint if you use a tiny brush, because it so quickly runs out, or won't flow, and you tend to sort of scrub with it, which is the last thing you want to do. I normally use a size 1 or 2 rigger.
Or use a mapping pen, with a little Indian ink or watercolour. Practise many times on odd bits of paper, because however you do it, the speedier the better: lingering over whiskers can make them look lifeless.
By the way - this is watercolour, isn't it? Instead of using white to put a sheen on the fur, lift colour out either with a tissue or a thirsty brush, and when dry paint a few details and/or a light coloured wash over it. You do have to make sure you've got the highlights in the right place, ie follow the anatomy of the cat (or whatever): if you don't, you can end up with areas of light and dark that don't correspond to the animal's bone structure or musculature, and you end up with a badly stuffed toy instead of a living, breathing, critter.
Posted
Or - is it acrylic....? In which case, you can still lift paint out if you hurry, but it's a less smooth process: acrylic tends to form edges too quickly.
And if it's acrylic (your saying you want to varnish it suggests it is) then your cocktail stick idea could work, as could very dilute paint on the rigger or small brush: Rosemary & Co make a good one of the latter, in their Golden Synthetic range: I find that extremely small brushes are probably better for miniature painters than for the rest of us; though they have their place, for painting the corners of eyes, and so on.
And you could still use a dip pen, with acrylic ink.
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