Assorted Cat Portraits

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Playing catch-up here. . .
These are portraits that have been finished for a while. I just hadn't gotten around to posting them until now.

First up is Wonkers. She was a beautiful and tough old girl. She had some chronic health problems but lived much longer than anyone thought she would. Her portrait is in ink/ink wash on scratchboard.

Here's a video of the progress:


I do have the individual scans of her portrait, but I'm blogging from a remote location without access to my main computer (internet's been down at home for a while), so I won't be posting those as I usually do.


"Wonkers, 6" x 6", Ink/Ink Wash/Watercolor (eyes) on Scratchboard"

Next is Mr. Fatty, a Munchkin cat (very short legs & stubby tail). This drawing is an ACEO in pencil, with blue color pencil for accent on his eye and the rug. This portrait was commissioned by Mr. Fatty's "aunt" (an artist friend who goes by the name "Golders") for her sister.

"Mr. Fatty, 2.5" x 3.5", Pencil & Color Pencil"

These are the reference photos in color & greyscale:



Last up is Trooper, who belongs to one of my friends. This is another ACEO drawing in pencil. I used color pencil on her ears & eyes.

"Trooper, 2.5" x 3.5", Pencil & Color Pencil"

My first idea was to do a dramatic crop for the portrait, with one of the photos my friend provided. Like this:

. . . but she really wanted to have both of Trooper's eyes in the portrait. So I used this photo and then cropped it.


So these are the reference photos in color & greyscale. I rotated them slightly to make her eyes level.

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Portraits Underway . . .

Monday, March 14, 2011

Just thought I'd share the early stages of a few dog portraits that I've started.

The first three are 4" x 4" on the Art Board surface (watercolor paper mounted to an archival board). The last one is a larger piece on a 9" x 12" Aquabord.


This is Buddha, a Samoyed - a white and very furry breed. So far, I've used black ink on his nose & eyes, some white and pale blue color pencil around the edges of his fur and watercolor for the background and other colored areas. I put the color pencil on first, to resist the paint at the edges of the dog. Some paint bled in past the pencil on the left side, so I scrubbed/lifted a bit of it off. That side will be in more shadow, so it's not a problem. Since Buddha's fur is all white, I'll tweak the color palette on this painting to be similar to this portrait I did of Bailey. Buddha's portrait will have more "floof" and less curl texture than Bailey's.


Cali, a terrier mix, has more dark colors on her than Buddha, so you see more ink work here. I've used a black Micron pen for the ink. Next, I'll paint the background blue and then Cali. She's brown, tan and white, so I'll paint her in shades of purple and orange with pale purple for the shadows on her white areas.


On Gus, a lab mix, I've done a lot more work with the black ink, since he's a black dog. He's wearing a bandanna which will be teal, with Gus in shades of purple/blue. I haven't decided yet, but I think the background will be a purple-tinged blue.


And lastly, this is Brogan, an Irish Wolfhound. I took reference photos of him when he was younger and then over a year later when he'd matured. My client wants both stages of his life depicted in his portrait. Young Brogan is in the upper right corner. For this portrait, since it will be more detailed and realistic, I'm using the Aquabord, which has a coated surface that allows for scratching, along with my application of ink, watercolor & color pencil. So far, I've used ink for the darkest areas and watercolor for everything else. I use a technical pen filled with India ink for the Aquabord portraits. The next step will be to scratch in detail and texture. I made this video of a German Shepherd portrait done with the same technique.

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- - - All art and images ©Ann Ranlett, unless otherwise credited. All rights reserved. - - -
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