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Thread: Sleeping Cat

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
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    Sleeping Cat

    Another WC challenge entry (no prizewinners) with supplied reference photo. Mainly airbrush.

    Name:  Sleeping Cat.jpg
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    June.

    Oh God of homeless things, look down
    And try to ease the way
    Of all the little weary paws
    That walk the world
    today.
    -
    Unknown.

    http://enug66.deviantart.com/gallery/

    [My setup: hp 15in laptop,11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.70 GHz, 8.00 GB RAM, 24in Acer 2nd monitor, Huion Kamvas 20 Pro display tablet, Windows 11, ArtRage Vitae.
    My painting real-estate is extended across three monitors.]

  2. #2
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    Apr 2010
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    brighton uk
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    15,516
    Nice. One June. Like me. Always. Sleeping. . CIAO. HOO ROO

  3. #3
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    Dec 2011
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    Columbus/Ohio/USA
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    1,778
    cute...wel done

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Posts
    25,097
    Nice one, June! Adorable, homey look. The pillow looks like it's royalty or the color of velvet or satin that crown jewels are often displayed on.

    I think, to my eye the cat looks very well painted. I particularly LOVE the translucence in the ears. Good shapes, nice fur and structure and all.

    The pillow on the other hand looks like it was done with airbrush which is a different approach. The cat itself is a prize winner. So for me it would be worth it to take the time with the whole.

    Just my thoughts. You have a real knack with animals that shows well here with this one.
    "Not a bit is wasted and the best is yet to come. . ." -- remembered from a dream

  5. #5
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    May 2010
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    Wilmington North Carolina
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    My gosh June this is beautiful, the ears are outstanding, love your talent for animals, I am not good at fur lol

  6. #6
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    Thanks all.

    Mr Ploos - I love my bed too - especially on the couple of days a week I have the luxury of a sleep in. Pity my cats don't respect that and have their special ways of waking me. Maxie, in particular, is most effective - pat on my face with claws just slightly evident!

    Rondo - your work has taken to a new level - I'm enjoying it.

    DA - Do you mean the cushion should be more realistic, more detail? Actually, I used mostly airbrush on the cat too.

    Pat - But you are so good with colour - I wish I could blend them loosely as you do.
    June.

    Oh God of homeless things, look down
    And try to ease the way
    Of all the little weary paws
    That walk the world
    today.
    -
    Unknown.

    http://enug66.deviantart.com/gallery/

    [My setup: hp 15in laptop,11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.70 GHz, 8.00 GB RAM, 24in Acer 2nd monitor, Huion Kamvas 20 Pro display tablet, Windows 11, ArtRage Vitae.
    My painting real-estate is extended across three monitors.]

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Posts
    25,097
    Quote Originally Posted by Enug View Post

    DA - Do you mean the cushion should be more realistic, more detail? Actually, I used mostly airbrush on the cat too.
    Well, first, I may have misunderstood your acronym WC. I have always taken that to mean WaterColor. Did you shorthand some website that stages artistic competitions?

    If it's watercolor, I thought that airbrush was a different technique.

    As to my visual consideration about the pillow, to my eye there was a contrast in application and interest between the way the cat was handled and the pillow. The cat is relatively detailed and labored over (much being stroking in the indication of the fur and the interest in the colors being harmonious within that area, so that would be sort of natural that it would look different). But that is looking at the painting not as a painting but more about the wonderful, beautiful, sensual cat vs the rest of the painting. I'm saying it that way to show the contrast in attention it appears you gave to one portion of the painting (the cat) and the offhanded way you filled in the comparatively uninteresting pillow. I'm taking my cues from the artist based on what I'm looking at.

    So the take away from my comment is merely a suggestion that if you're painting, you should either own the whole picture and make every inch feel like the same mindset was working throughout every inch, or do the opposite where you knock in an indication of the less interesting bits (pillow), giving it more of a graphic sense. The pillow looks like you put it in with just enough to make it seem interesting, but it doesn't quite get there. Neither is it clearly being dismissed as a general idea of what is propping the cat up, with the idea that the viewer will know what's there but putting the attention squarely on the cat.

    So what's lacking in the pillow? It doesn't have a lot of shape. It doesn't really show that the cat is weighing on it, as one might see from the way the cast shadow would help describe the form. The pillow has a shape and a dynamic of its own. so as it turns, it would be affected by the light slightly differently. You as the artist could also perhaps make it interesting indicating the texture of the fabric (a little) just so it's not a vague and large area of purple that may compete with the star of the show. You could introduce a few strokes to subtly indicate contour -- just to show you owned that portion of the canvas and that the cat was the only part worth looking at.

    The risk of slavish fidelity to a photo is that photos don't always show things that a painting needs to show. Nobody questions a photo. People always question an artist's interpretation. You want to make it better than the photo since you have control over the whole mass.

    Just a thought. I personally thought the cat was super. I thought sharing the same space with a rather uninteresting blast of purple drew my attention to the purple and away like a crying baby in the room. Give it a bottle or hug it or something.
    "Not a bit is wasted and the best is yet to come. . ." -- remembered from a dream

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
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    Australia
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    Sorry DA I didn't make it clear that the cat painting was following on from the same Wet Canvas challenge as the previous Weimaraner painting. https://forums.artrage.com/showthrea...192-Weimaraner

    Thanks for pointing out how I could have given more attention to the rendering of the cushion. Your critiques/advice are always welcome. Much more helpful than "Nice" or "Good work" - though those comments are also appreciated. Who doesn't like a pat on the back?
    June.

    Oh God of homeless things, look down
    And try to ease the way
    Of all the little weary paws
    That walk the world
    today.
    -
    Unknown.

    http://enug66.deviantart.com/gallery/

    [My setup: hp 15in laptop,11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz 2.70 GHz, 8.00 GB RAM, 24in Acer 2nd monitor, Huion Kamvas 20 Pro display tablet, Windows 11, ArtRage Vitae.
    My painting real-estate is extended across three monitors.]

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    57
    Sweet looking cat... probably dreaming about chasing mice.
    Good work! Enug : )

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    2,877
    Love the way the light shines through the ears!

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