Rework of Cat 53

Rework of Cat 53.

The original (below) was done in 2013.

This is classic awkward Oscar in a weird, stiff position. I really liked the colorful quilt and hesitated painting over all the fussy detail, but couldn't take the visual chaos.
 I made adjustments to angles and proportions within the cat's body shape, and dropped the saturation/intensity of the colors. It's much less confusing to look at now.

Rework of Cat 55

Reworked painting of Cat 55.
Oscar bathing in the corner. The original painting (below) was done in 2013.

I made major proportion and angle structural adjustments to everything, and desaturated the colors to more neutral tones. It would have worked better if the paws had not been so close to the canvas edge- a little more open space down there would help relieve the visual tension.
I thought the one leg pointing at the lower right corner might cause a composition problem, but the edges of the walls seem to pull the eye back into the center. At any rate, its an improvement (I think) over the original. .

Rework of Cat 14

Rework of Cat 14-
The original was done in 2009.

reworked older paintings- Cat 19.

Reworked paintings

 I have been trying to convince myself to toss out a substantial stack of older paintings which  just didn't work well for various reasons, and make more room in my work space.
 I couldn't bring myself to trash all of them, and started reworking some to see what I came up with. Here is Cat 19 reworked-

 (The original painting is below)

This has really caught my interest, and I have since resurrected other paintings (#5, 9, 10, 14, 18, 19, 20, 28, 47, 50, 53, 55). I recall struggling with these trying to make them work, and getting pretty frustrated at the time.  Years later it is gratifying to be able to identify the problem areas, come up with better solutions, and see some progress!
Some were simply bad compositions. Most commonly I did not give enough attention to proportions and angles, and tended to oversaturated colors competing with each other. And a disturbing "cut out" hard edge look.

                       


         

Cat 64

Cat 64, Lizzy on the heating pad
Acrylic on canvas. 12" x 14".

Lizzy on a towel covered heating pad, warming up on a cold morning.

   I had started this with my usual array of colors, and as usual it quickly became over saturated.
So part way through, I limited myself to using only what I could mix using red, blue, yellow and white, and modified everything I had laid down already.
I am pleased with the result- it is much more toned down, and unified.

Goals for this painting:
1. Getting the form correct, before getting into details.
2. Desaturate the colors by mixing more, using a limited palette.
3. Use both soft and hard edges.
3. Use directional brush strokes.

Cat 63

 Cat 63, Lizzy on the bed
Acrylic on board. 12" x 12".

Lizzy on the bed, when she stops in mid-grooming and stares before resuming her task.

I have been doing some looking and reading on the works, techniques and approaches of other people in their artwork. A few things are beginning to sink in on how I have been working.

- The most common problem is using a poor composition. No amount of fancy brushwork will compensate for that.
- Not giving enough attention to correct proportions at the start. I tend to go back in and correct angles and forms after being well into the painting, thus creating a lot of nuisance rework.
- The overuse of highly saturated color. When all the colors are intense, none of them stand out. A solution is to "gray down" some areas to create better contrast and emphasis on the focal point(s).
- And finally, I think my work would benefit from a variation of hard and soft edges-  some forms may be sharply defined, and others may be softer and not so defined.

My goals for this painting:
1. Getting the proportions of the forms correct,
2. Desaturate the colors,
3. Use both soft and hard edges.

Cat 62 (new version of Cat 45)

 Cat 62, Toby Chester (version 2 of Cat #45)
Acrylic on canvas. 14" x 11".

This is a second attempt at Cat # 45.  The original (at left) was done in response to a story that was written about this cat by a friend. In both versions I chose to depart from the reference photo (a kitchen floor) and invented a background- something I find challenging, if not outright difficult.
 I was not entirely satisfied with how I handled the foreshortened cat in the first version, but I did like the background textures and colors.

The general composition was problematic, placing the subject dead center within the frame, and the mirror image balance of background elements- a little too predictable. Another bothersome element was having the chin nearly touching the edge of the canvas, which created too much visual tension.
I decided to tackle it again, with the goal of paying attention to getting the proportions correct, adjusting the placement of the cat in relation to the frame edges and incorporating some forest type foliage which related more to the story written about him.
   I am much happier with the proportions on the new version, and the less repetitious background. It may have been a better solution had I offcentered the cat more to one side, but I think this also works with the head angled to the right, and the tail angled to the left. The idea was to lead the eye from center of interest (the face), through the highlights in the foliage up to the focal point (the high contrast of the tail) and back around to the face again.
Did it work?