Study for Cat 66, Tiger on the porch

Study for Cat 66, Tiger on the porch
canvas paper

   The first new work of the year. Many years ago a neighbor's cat, "Tiger" liked to visit and park himself on the porch rail for hours, watching the birds.

I'm attempting a "hard reboot" of my painting habits. Reading through numerous books on landscape painting and composition, I noticed a common theme of  establishing large value masses and a base structure before diving into details; more planning before picking up a brush. I tend to get involved in details far too early in the process, then spend a lot of time later trying to correct problems.
   So, the intent here was to change my usual working process. I tried ignoring the subject matter and just pay attention to the general masses of light and dark, and warm/cool color temperatures. Then made adjustments and added detail.

   This study was a suggested color temperature exercise I found in one book, using only two colors- a warm and a cool, and white for adjusting. I used mixes of Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Orange.
   The imposed limitation definitely forced me to slow down and put more thought into the composition and mixing color. In spite of slowing down, I completed this in one session.

 I had run across a forgotten a pad of "canvas paper" while cleaning off the shelves, and gave it a try. It's an exasperating surface to work on- it resists the paint until you get a good layer of pigment built up on the surface. OK for informal fiddling around, but I would not recommend it for anything serious.