Day 1 30 Day Challenge - Special Delivery cat study

HAPPY NEW YEAR                   2017!!








Yes, it's HERE again, the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.  I always debate now whether or not to do it, but usually end up going forward because there are always things I learn and the benefits of doing back to back paintings is usually huge.  It's a mini capsule to see your work improve before your eyes in 30 days.  I have learned to that if I don't do 30 the world doesn't end and I have taken pressure off of myself to just have more fun.

For this challenge I decided to work on animals and try to see if I can get a better fur/feather/scale technique as I am not sure what animal might appear as we go through the month.  I am also working out of a book (Anne DeMille Flood's Realistic Pet Portraits, I have that is about color pencil, but I want to try the color layering/receipes in color pencil in other media to see how it turns out, might come up with some new color receipts.  This cat is a study, 4.5"x4.5", of one that I want to use in a larger picture, many thanks to takart from PMP for the photo, and decided that the larger picture might benefit from having a practice first.

TIP:  Avoid blunt or abrupt edges where the fur joins the highlight.  Fur has a random pattern, so the edges of highlight areas within the fur are jagged.

The reason there are two photos here is that the on the right is where I was going to stop yesterday.  Instead I let it sit overnight and decided to come back in this morning and highlight some areas and do a few subtle changes and see if it made a more finished picture.  I think that I am usually in too much of a hurry and should work a bit past where I usually stop.

Comments

Rita Vaselli said…
Happy New Year dera Nelvia! I wish you all the best for health life and your beautiful art. Warm hugs,Rita
January 1, 2017 at 2:36 PM
Joan Tavolott said…
Nelvia, thanks so much for visiting my blog earlier today. Since it took me so long to do my 2016 year in review, that post wasn't posted until nearly midnight last night. Even though I posted early on Leslie's blog this morning, I didn't want to put a new post on my blog so soon after the other one. How fun that you are doing animals too. It will be interesting to read what you write about your experiences doing the fur, feathers, and scales. I'm going to put your blog under my links so I can come back and visit easily. I find there are so many paintings posted on Leslie's blog that sometimes I can't find the people whose work I am looking for. It is easier if I can find the paintings another way. Happy painting!
January 1, 2017 at 7:20 PM
Mellowood Gallery said…
I gotta say that the eyes are fabulous, Nelvia - just super! I think you are off to a good start with the fur because this looks good too. - Happy 30/30!
January 2, 2017 at 10:58 AM
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