Cat Portrait: Working with Poor Quality Reference Photos

Still needs some work...and I think this cat looks way too kitten-like in proportions, but it's deadline is today so this is probably the final portrait.

Here's the reference picture I was given:

And here's the portrait:

And a zoomed in pic of the face:

The aww factor

Another non art-related post, but the aww factor is so high I can't resist. Neotomrama posted an entry about this blog called Zooborns. Each entry features newborn baby animals born in zoos around the world...such as these Pallas kittens born in The Bramble Park zoo in South Dakota:

And these Red River Hog piglets (an animal I'd never heard of..look at momma's ears!) born in the Cincinnati Zoo:

Go check it out, There's lots of interesting info about each of the newborns...beware the overwhelming cuteness.

pet portraits

I got a small job doing a pencil portrait of my vet's receptionist's friend's cat (whew.) but haven't been able to do it yet because I'm having computer troubles. See, the picture she gave me it the only picture she's got, so I don't want to get it crumpled or dirty--So I need to scan it in to my computer (then I'm going to enlarge it to the size I want the actual portrait to be before printing it out.) Well, my computer at home doesn't like having things plugged into both USB ports apparently. so when I plug in my scanner/printer then my mouse stops working. And I can't enlarge the picture very well with out a mouse. Very annoying. So I need to bring the photo to work to scan it in and I keep forgetting to. I wish I was better at computer things.

So here's a quick pencil portrait of my cat Gypsy since I haven't finished (or started) the portrait of that lady's cat yet.

Robert Hunt

Neatorama did a post about the stories behind the logos of various big Hollywood studios. One of the Sudios talked about was dreamworks, Who's logo was painted by Robert Hunt...which led me to go to the guy's website. What an amazing illustrator/Fine artist. Anyone who actually reads this be sure to check out the "alter ego" link on his site.

http://www.roberthuntstudio.com/

EDM

Challenge #173: Draw something from memory.

I chose My niece, Merrigan. I don't get to see her much. Last time I visited she discovered this cat toy... much to the frustration of my sister's cats. Toby, (one of said cats) in particular, would hear the jingle and come a-running...only to find the baby attached to his toy. The look of chagrin on his face can not be described....

Can you roll your tongue?

My dog can.

They're like giant windows, with whatever view you want

A few years ago, I painted a mural at a friend's parent's house by their stairs. Now they are having me paint another mural in a coat closet (that is not being used as a coat closet, the door is left open so its more like...a nook.)

I'll post pics of the new mural later when I have a little more done, but I took pictures of the staircase while I was over there the other day.

It's hard to get good pics of it because there's another wall on the other side of the stairs...

I wish I knew more people who wanted mural's done in their house...they're lots of fun to paint. I'd paint a couple in my own house but I can't really decide what to do exactly. Deciding what to paint in my own house is kinda like picking a tattoo...Its something I'd have to see every day and because it'd by my artwork, I'd start noticing all the flaws in it as soon as it's done. Course..a mural is slightly less permenant than a tat...