A Commissioned Cat Painting
The Larson Five
20 x 30 inch acrylic on canvas
The Initial Ideas
Painting a multi cat portrait is pretty tricky! These five beautiful cats belong to Cindy Larson and I’m trying to capture all five in one large painting. This can be very challenging because of course there’s no way the cats will all curl up together in the perfect pose! But luckily Cindy is an excellent photographer and she took lots of photos of the cats, all in in similar positions, and her photos have really helped in the design of the painting.
The first thing to do was a series of sketches of each of the cats and then to look at how we placed them all together on the bed.
The Painting Process
Once Cindy had approved the final sketch I started laying out the painting on the canvas and marking out the darks with ultramarine blue.
Then working on the under painting, filling it with warm burnt sienna and golds.
When the under painting was finished I started on the painting itself working from the background towards the cats.
Once the background is done I start on the cats themselves.
a close up of this stage.
The Finished Painting
Here is the finished painting. The five of them have come together very well and I just love Josie, the Maine Coon, stretched out in the middle of the painting with her amazing tail draped over the edge of the bed.
And here are some close ups of the finished canvas.
Josie
Mad Dog
Isis and Bobina
Cooper
And this shows the detail of the canvas.