Drawing up

Getting this stage of the preparation right is vital, and I cannot emphasise this enough.

Spend plenty of time making an accurate map of the whole composition.

Indicate anything that helps secure exact locations across the image.

Measure the distance between the key features and then scale up.

Be sure to check and re-check proportions.

Check the distance between ear tips, eyes, whiskers etc.

It's particularly important to get the drawing of the eyes right.

Beginning the painting

Start with the background - in this case I used a wash of neutral tint.

Wet the entire background area with a mop brush and clean water, paying very careful attention to the edge that butts up to the cat.

Mix up a good strong wash of neutral tint and, using the mop brush again, lay the paint into the wet area letting the paint move around the wet area in its own way. Don't try for a flat wash - a bit of texture creates a livelier effect.

A little trick here is to add some salt. Have some simple table salt ready in a little pot, and watch carefully. As the high gloss shine of the background wash changes to a subtler sheen, sprinkle some of the salt on then wait for it to dry. Be sure not to fiddle as it dries!

The colours

Whilst you are waiting for the background to dry it’s a good idea to make some swatches, i.e. some colour matching for the fur and markings.

Work out what the lightest colour in the fur is, and then use that to make a first wash as an underpainting, avoiding the eyes and any areas of white fur.

Use a pinker base wash around the ears and nose area, where the fur is less dense, and the skin shows through.

Start at the top (the ears) and work down - it's good to be methodical!

Start building up darker washes to create the contours of the ears, a small pointed sable brush is ideal for suggesting the directionality of the fur at various points.

Keep an eye on the details, including key features (like the little hairs right at the top of the ears) is a good way to get a decent likeness. However, you don’t want to obsess over every hair and whisker - finding a happy balance is key.

Be sure to paint both ears whilst your palette holds the colours you mixed - you need them to match!

Move downwards towards the nose, going back to the basic washes to build contours. Paying attention to the values is key - getting the lights light enough and the darks dark enough is vital for an accurate likeness. Again, use the small brush to build up a suggestion of the direction of the fur and notice the subtle changes in direction as the fur carries on across the face.

The eyes

When you reach the eyes themselves, zoom in as best you can on the photo. Try to forget that they are eyes if you can, and look hard at what colours, shapes and patterns you can see in different parts of the eyeball.

Look for where the shadow falls at the top of the eyeball, cast by the eyelid. Look also for the colour subtlety of the iris.

Ask yourself what colours the reflections are (not all reflections will be white) and try playing with a little wet-in-wet to allow different colours to bleed softly with each other in the iris.

You can use a lift-off technique to get more light in the eye if necessary.

Then, use a darker paint (try Payne’s grey) and the small, pointed brush, create the deep shadows around the eye - a bit like eyeliner!

Being very precise with shape and values here will help with the likeness.

Focus on the markings

Cats often have very specific facial markings, getting these right helps make the contours of the face more accurate.

Build up layers of darker washes, always paying attention to the direction of the fur.

Continue this basic technique for the body of the cat:

• Build up base washes
• Add in fur markings paying attention to fur direction
• Check values and colour accuracy
• Use a fine brush for textural marks

Watercolour pencils

When the paint is dry, go over the whole thing with aquarelle pencils.

Keeping the pencils sharp and making small light strokes, which echo the direction of individual hairs in key places, build up colour and texture gradually.

At this point it's a good idea to stand back and check you have built up a convincing texture.

Use a textured fan brush to create fur-like textures at this stage.

Finishing touches

Once you're happy with the fur and the markings, use a little tub of Kuretake highly opaque white ink and a tiny brush to add white whiskers.

Map out the size and shape of the whisker in your head before picking up the brush. Then, once you're ready, go for it quickly and with energy. You can’t paint a whisker slowly! Better a graceful but broken line than a clumsy heavy one.

Be careful to match the exact pattern of whiskers from the mouth area and from above the eyes. In this case there were also tiny white hairs on the ears, around the eyes and in various places on the body.

Adding the cushion

For this commission the buyer had requested a particular cushion for the cat to sit on and had given me reference photos to support this.

Reminding myself frequently that the background should look subtle and loose and that the cat is the star of the painting, I matched the key colours for the cushion pattern and added a loose interpretation, paying close attention to the contours where the cat would be making a dent, where the shadows would be, etc.

Conclusion:

It is always difficult to know when to stop! Overworking a watercolour can kill all liveliness and spirit - so be prepared to add a few extra hairs here and there, but step back, stop and look, and look again.

Painting pets for people always brings great joy, so I recommend you have a go!

I often take a photograph of the painting at this point, sleep on it, and have a fresh look at the photo the next day. If there’s anything amiss it usually jumps right out at you!

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