Multiple cat pet portrait commission

Some of you might remember this portrait from several months ago...It has been along time coming but I can now share the finished six cat portrait!
 

...and talk about a mouthful! From top left to right: blue point Siamese, black/white tuxedo, seal point Tonkinese, and bottom left to right: chocolate Burmese, orange tabby Scottish fold and chocolate tonkinese. 

Portrait of Thierre, Tuxedo, Neko, Sidarka,Mackay and Tyler

Pastel

11x14

COMMISSION

The challenge when painting this portrait was that I had to work from several not-so-good photos for several of the cats. This meant that, along with the client's feedback, I had to use some imagination to help me complete the painting.

Multiple Cat Portrait with Tonkinese in progress

Currently at my easel is a commissioned portrait of 6 very interesting felines.  The cat breeds that I am painting include Siamese, Tonkinese, Burmese, Scottish Fold and a domestic short haired tuxedo. 

Some of the photos I received as reference material are very old and the subject not very well represented but I managed to make out some detail by scanning at very high resolution and blowing up the image on my computer screen. Of course, I also rely on the client to guide me as I paint the subject so that the resemblance is most accurate as possible.  The blue point Siamese cat to the very left will need some touching up before I add the whiskers. I'd like to note that the magenta hue on his coat is the result of my bad photography!

The easiest cat to paint so far is the middle black and white "tuxedo" cat. The reference photos were very good so this made my task much easier.

The cat to the very right (with the unfinished body) is a Tonkinese. It was challenging to reproduce his coat color but with careful layering and blending of several different pastel colors, I believe to have achieved a pretty good likeness. 

Make sure to stay tuned as there's more to come soon!

The painting studio and animal portraits

It must seem like after completing the wolf painting, I have disappeared from the face of the earth but actually, I have been working on several projects at once. So I thought I'd share a few projects that are at various stages of completion in my studio.

First is a very rough sketch of a six cat portrait commission, most of which are Siamese type breeds and one amusing Scottish fold! Two cats in particular will be challenging to paint due to poor quality photos but with the client's feedback and scanning/zooming the photos on my computer to see more detail, I am confident it will all work out in the end.  I did start the cat on the top left which is one that I only have poor quality photos of. I felt I'd better start with the most challenging one and then the rest should be a breeze, right?

Another project I will be working on is that of my friend's beautiful dog, a flat coated retriever named "Galoche".  I will share more of this special commission on my blog at a later date. Below is a mock- up image composed of two photographs combined to create the reference I will use for the dog portrait.

Lastly, I completed a dog pencil drawing commission of which I have not shown any updates yet. Once the owner approves the final version of their portrait, I will post the artwork along with a few work in progress stages. So stay tuned and have a happy day everyone!

Siamese Cat Portrait: A Painting in Pastel

I had so much fun painting this beautiful cat's portrait. It is not a commission but rather, came about from one of my reference images from my photography library. The wondrous lighting, contrast and glowing icy blue eye of the Siamese is what compelled me to paint her.

Now, to find a name for this painting...something I don't usually struggle with but I can't seem to find anything appropriate that I like so far.  Update: "Bejeweled"

Siamese Cat Portrait
"Bejeweled"
pastel painting
4"x6"
SOLD

For more cat portraits, please visit my website at
http://www.colettetheriault.com/catportraits.php