Cat 36

Cat 36.
Acrylic on canvas. 9" x 12".
(Mimi and Izzy #1 - sold)

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I have been struggling with this for weeks. The request was to have both cats together with a neutral background. I assumed a gray cat  and a black cat would be relatively simple and intuitive, and it turned out to be a challenge.

Working from a small photo, the black cat was in heavy shadow with virtually no detail beyond a few vague highlights, so I had to guess at the features to create definition. I used mostly layers of burnt umber and pthalo blue to build up the black cat as straight black out of the tube would be too flat.
 The gray cat was complex- there is a surprising amount of subtle reflective and inherent color going on in the gray, and that is heavily influenced by the background color. Using Payne's gray from the tube produced a very flat, dead gray even after mixing different hues to it. I ended up removing that layer and using a mix of raw umber, white and ultramarine blue for the base, and added some layers using cobalt blue and then pthalo blue.
Every time I adjusted the background, I had to re-balance the grays on the cat.

I don't know how many times changed the background was changed trying to find a good solution, and each time I ended up taking a wet toothbrush and scrubbing out everything done the day before. The scrubbing did yield some interesting tints.

It was very difficult to get an accurate photo of. Even adjusting the settings for incandescent lighting didn't quite work- it either leans too orange or too blue. This is looking more blue than it really is, but the best color compromise I could arrive at. It still looks a bit "cartoon-ish" to me. I clearly need to try tackling more black cats to figure out a good solution.