Cat 37

Cat 37.
Acrylic on canvas. 20" x 16".
(Mimi and Izzy #2 - sold)

This is an alternate to the commissioned piece, #36. Several of the photo's provided had potential, and I ended up working on both paintings at the same time. I really wanted to nail the true individual qualities of the cats and again, the black cat was a challenge being deep in shadow with little definition.

I ran out of black paint years ago, and never replaced it after discovering that I can achieve a richer "black" by building up layers of intense colors. Here I worked with blues and reds to create the "black".
The background wall was problematic until it finally dawned on me that the yellow undertones was causing it to visually pull forward instead of recede. Graying it down helped push the wall back to where I wanted it.

I really like the cat tree structure. The angle of the lower round platform in relation to the top is a little bothersome - I now wish I had adjusted the perspective to be more frontal. I am pleased with the way the black cat mixes in with the shadows.
The reality is, I spend entirely too much time on correcting and adjusting elements in the painting, than I do actually painting.
I need to put more time up front on getting the forms and angles correct. There seems to be a disconnect between what I see, and what I think something should look like. How do you resolve that?