You again?

Coming Soon - but maybe not this pose
The look is definitely NOT happy to see me:  "Oh no!  Her again!"


MINOU is a shy medium fluffy grey boy.   He has this quirk:  he likes people who squeak.   Yes SQUEAK not speak.   A high mouselike squeak calms him down and turns him on.   So first 15 mins at his home, all conversation was squeaked.  (If speak becomes spoken, does squeak become squoken?)  Surprisingly difficult to maintain.  Ultimately he realised I was not a serial cat thief and I got some very decent shots to work from, of which many are just downright funny.

Took 3 hours.  Tho NOT unusual for cats to take ages.   They are such sensitive things (heavy sarcasm).   Oh, that time included his buddy GK who was REALLY shy but was not (thank heaven) in need of squeaking.


Enjoy!


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Rescued 2009

All rescue cats are beautiful.   This was one - from 2009. 

Enjoy



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Brody's Back!

pastel 8"x10"

I loved doing Brody the Second...and thank goodness I had textured pastel paper in PRECISELY
the color I wanted.

The first Brody - color pencil, Wednesday Sept 21st - created the enthusiasm for this.
'Twere a lot of fun!

Enjoy!


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Soho and Snow

Color Pencil  8" x 8-1/2"

This was winter 2010/11 (I believe) and Soho's out in the snow, which explains
abbreviated rear leg!   I love the eagerness, the quizzical face and in a split
second you know Soho will be bouncing off somewhere else!   The sketchy
format seems to go with the buoyancy of that moment.


The photo arrived this past February just as life turned upside down.
Almost right side up now - paper, pastels, pencils and enthusiasm for same are returning.  
Soho is a workout sketch - a friend of a friend's dog, sent to me for my "reserve file":
free to use as and when, as long as I let them know it's done.

Enjoy!


...

Time out...

         ...for sleeping



.

Coat of Many Colors

Color Pencil  8"x10"

His name is Brody and he's shy and retiring - so I wonder what he'll think
of this vibrant persona when it arrives at his home on Monday!

I like the impact of that narrow inner mat, which is set just inside the
outer cream mat.  I chose blue for the final since I felt that was more in
tune with his real character - below are some of the other options I tried.
I create these using colored card and a special mat cutter.

Enjoy!

Together at last: Taylor & Taylor

      Above:  "TAYLOR"   Pastel    Dec 7, 2010

 Below: "TAYLOR" & Taylor (& Sylvie)  Sept 11, 2011

Taylor is a magnificent example of feline pulchritude!   His extraordinarily lush tail is awesome - so is it the reason for "Taylor"?   Maybe I should do another portrait?  hmmm.

He shares space with five dogs and 2 people.   Mutual affection is omnipresent in that home;  during the evening walk with the dogs, Taylor goes right along too, and the big boys watch out for him.  His special status shows in his living arrangement:  he has HIS OWN BEDROOM.

A very handsome boy.         Thanks for looking!

PS  I'm changing that inner mat from black (so funereal!) to a color.   Something a little wild.   Should look vastly improved.

Artistic blunder or FORGERY!

 

Pastel  21"x7" on Arches Watercolor paper (yes, it's Jenny again)

A multiple experiment

* a very textured surface that did NOT take kindly to detail!

* the pose...those backlegs always trip me up...and that's where the forgery comes in!

It's all to do with those back legs!   All floppy and no defined shape.   Lower one bent with toes part curled coming forward and upper one just flopping behind.    Not much contrast in photo and fur fogs detail PLUS Jenny's grey white coat didn't help - so I sacrificed her coat color to focus on shading.   

Ultimately pleased - with result and quite proud of myself for sticking to it with those hind legs, struggling to get them right.  I THINK I've achieved visual comprehension.  Wouldn't life be wonderful if every creative process ALWAYS happened as perfectly as one's brain knew it should be!   

The forgery?   See smaller pic - then look at larger pic, top.   In smaller there's a heavy (abusive) yellow mess above upper hind leg.   THAT was to correct the outline, to bring it down to reflect the sinking curve of that flopped back leg.  Tsk Tsk   P'shop helped eliminate that in larger pic - I felt you needed to know.

Enjoy!

Gotta start somewhere!

 

Pastel 13"x14" first sketch  

Great?  no.   Good?   no.   Amusing?  YES!

This is Keller.   He was regally chunky (Henry VIII would be an apt regal comparison!) and liked to "sit up" on a sofa, so here he was sitting up in the corner, his paws resting on the arm.  Not enough torso in the above to make that obvious however if this is selected as "the" pose, then more torso will show!

I enjoyed this!

Zenyatta Finished

 

Pastel  10"x16"

Way back when Zenyatta "Unfinished" appeared.   This is that picture finished.  Took me a long time to get there.   I feel very ambivalent about this:   it's the only race she ever lost, and her last before retiring to become a mother.   I couldn't bear to show the winner.   Her jockey wept after the loss.  

If you do not know Zenyatta, look her up.   She's the lady who danced, and you can watch her moves on YouTube.

Framed and on the wall it hangs behind me where the light is best and the reflection minimal.  It's good to get up and turn around.

ciao            liz 

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