Art Renewal Center is currently embroiled in a bit of a scandal. They gave an award to an obviously generated AI image. See the video above for further history on this. I’m very saddened. Saddened in every way.
I guess now is as good a time as any to state that I don’t use AI, not as reference, not in any way when working on my art. I do use Photoshop to process photos I take of my paintings and also to prepare references to paint from. Photoshop does have some AI features that I’m not completely aware of, and don’t really use (to my knowledge).
All I can say is I either paint from life, from photos I’ve taken, from stock photos (like posespace), royalty-free photos, or photos I have been given permission to use. Oh, and I occasionally paint some “fan art”, which requires the use of a screenshot as reference.
I don’t hide the fact that I sometimes use stock and royalty-free photos (like the ones available at RawUmberStudios) because the photographer got paid, permission is given, it’s all good. There’s a lot to learn from these photo resources, and I am very grateful for them.
Lately I’ve been taking photos of many cats of my acquaintance, as painting reference. Here are two paintings of my kitties or kitties of friends:
“Gizmo” 8×8″ oil on linen panel.
Gizmo is a sweet but mischievous cat. He and his companions are staying here while their cat dad gets his bearings. I loved this pose of Gizmo, looking out the window with the cool light on his face and fur. Gizmo just won a “Judge’s Choice” nod from the January 2025 “Daily Paintworks” contest, for which I am very grateful!
“Her Name is Blot” 8×8″ oil on linen panel.
I have a special affinity for this painting, and for this cat. Blot is a very sweet kitty, but not as objectively “pretty” as her sister, the Biter of Hands. However, Blot is a affectionate, loving kitty who just so happens can give these malevolent glares that in no way reflect her true character. I enjoyed painting her glare in this piece!
I’ve got more paintings in the works, and more things to yammer on about… hopefully will make more updates soon!
I haven’t been “gone,” I just haven’t been posting on this blog. But I have been painting! At least for the past several months with regularity. Before that, life got in the way, and also procrastination got in the way. Hopefully, that’s changing.
There’s a lot more to talk about, and I’m eager to share. But for now, I’ll just post three recent paintings and leave the rest for a future post.
“Alain in Limited Palette,” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel. This painting was not quite done when I took this photo. I have since tweaked a few things to hopefully improve the likeness. The limited palette consisted only of White, Ultramarine Blue, and Burnt Sienna.
“Sepia Tabby,” 5×7″ oil on panel. A limited palette of Burnt Umber, White, and a minimal amount of Yellow Ochre and Ultramarine Blue for the eyes.
“Yellow Crochet Flower,” 8×10″ oil on canvas panel. Part of the Raw Umber Studios challenge. This website offers royalty-free reference photos, virtual classes, and other goodies. I have an image subscription and am going to be using some of their reference photos for studies. This painting used only the Zorn Palette: White, Black, Cadmium Red, and Yellow Ochre.
So I guess the theme with these paintings is “limited palette.” I love limited palettes! They pose a challenge, but at the same time, they make it easier for the artist to have color harmony in their painting.
I feel right now like I want to go back to basics and focus on what I don’t know. Also, to find out about new things I never knew I didn’t know! It’s an endless process!
Yes, I’ve been busy painting lots of cat portraits and human portraits. Because I’ve been neglectful in updating this blog, I’m dumping a lot of new oil paintings in this post!
“Sun-kissed Tabby,” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
This painting was just completed tonight, but it waited on my easel for way, way too long. So glad to finally call it “done”! I really loved capturing all the different colors I saw in this kitty, not least was the light showing through the ears.
“A Lock of Red Hair,” 12×12″ oil on panel. Photo reference by Marvin Mansilla (used with permission).
This is another painting that took a long time to complete. I actually signed it years ago, but only recently decided that it was truly “done” after a few touch-ups. I saw this fantastic photo on Instagram, contacted the photographer, Marvin Mansilla, to get permission to do a painting. He said yes, and here is the result! Thank you so much, Marvin, for being such an amazing photographer!
“Corazón roto” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
I’m learning some new techniques and studying some new (to me) art concepts. One new thing is speed painting, or oil “gestures.” The goal is to see how much can be done in an hour. Well, I couldn’t quite finish this painting in an hour—it took 80 minutes. But I’m still surprised with myself! This painting is part of my “novela” series (paintings inspired by Mexican telenovelas).
In this portrait painting, this poor man obviously has had his heart broken, hence the title “Corazón roto” (broken heart).
I used a limited palette of White and Burnt Umber. I like Winsor & Newton’s Burnt Umber, as it has a warmer cast than some other paint brands.
“Minus the Tabby” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
This is another “speed paint,” or a “gesture” painting, though it took longer than an hour. (Probably two hours?) This time I used a limited palette of Burnt Umber, White, Ultramarine Blue, a tiny bit of Yellow Ochre to mix the green eyes and a tiny bit of red to add some color to the nose.
Minus is one of my kitties. She is named after a cat we had when I was a kid. My dad named the original “Minus,” but I have no idea why he chose that name. (He had a propensity to giving everything and everyone weird or hilarious nicknames!)
Minus is a very sweet kitty, but a little “minus” in the brains department, alas. But of course she is very loved!
“Wide-Eyed” 4×4″ oil on canvas panel.
I loved the reflection in the eyes of this kitty and enjoyed capturing the many colors in the fur and also that wide-eyed expression.
Yes, another cat painting! I decided to go small again, and recently completed this tiny kitty portrait in oils. As I mentioned in a previous post, I love Trekell’s mini painting panels, which was what I used here. The texture on the painting surface is far smoother than the other mini 2×2″ canvas panels on the market.
For scale: The little painting next to an iPhone SE.
I can complete a painting this small in a relatively short amount of time, but in this case, I thought I had “finished” the painting but then changed my mind and did a little more work on it a few days later. Sometimes artists need to get some distance from recently finished art to see if there is anything else that needs a little work, and that was the case here. What also surprised me was how I was able to add far more details than I expected on something of this size, which is a good thing!
This painting is currently available for sale on DailyPaintworks.
I’m currently working on several more cat paintings and also just started another portrait from my “Novela series.” It feels so, so SO good to be back to painting!
I neglected to post these paintings earlier, after I first painted them. But it’s never too late. Here they are now!
I painted “Mini Siamese Kitty” on a Trekell Mini Panel. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these panels and bought an embarrassingly large amount of them. They now reside in my substantial stash of painting panels.
They are fabulous panels because they have a subtle texture that isn’t too overpowering when you’re painting that small. I much prefer them over extra-small panels that use canvas.
To give you context to comprehend how small this painting is, behold:
Mini Siamese Kitty next to a pink packet of sweetener. Just so you understand HOW SMALL this painting is!
“Green-Eyed Kitty” 3×3″ oil on panel.
I really enjoyed painting this tabby. I used a 3×3″ mini panel from Trekell with that same sublime subtle texture. So much fun to paint on—so much fun!
“Fluffy Tabby in the Grass” 5×5″ oil on canvas panel
I enjoyed painting this tabby kitty with all the grass reflecting on his fur. The size at 5×5″ was a little small, but since oil paint is so smooth and buttery it’s amazing how much detail you can capture if the canvas texture is not too rough.
“Siamese Tabby” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
The color cast of the reference photo was a little warmish and I battled capturing the contrast between the warm yellow-greens and the magenta-burgundy colors in the shadows. In the end, I liked the way the painting turned out. Such beautiful blue eyes on this kitty!
Inspired by telenovelas
“Ana” 6×6″ oil on canvas panel
I fussed with this portrait a bit, but…what the heck, put a fork in it, it is done!
If you’ve seen a few select shows in the USA or if you speak Spanish (or study Spanish), you might (might! the likeness isn’t perfect!) recognize this woman. She’s a Mexican telenovela actress and I love the telenovelas. Many of the small portrait studies I paint are “inspired” (meaning the likeness is purposely not 100% there) by Mexican telenovelas. I am learning Spanish and watching Spanish TV is a great learning tool. But I’d be lying if I claimed I just watched telenovelas to practice Spanish. I also just love the over-the-top drama and the gorgeous Mexican landscapes and architecture. Watching my telenovelas is a true guilty pleasure.
There is a wealth of inspiring painting material from these telenovelas (so many emotions expressed, so much drama!) and so I’ve got a queue of reference photos from telenovelas lined up, ready to be painted.
I haven’t been updating my blog in a while, but here I am! As you can see, I’ve made some big changes—moved my blog from my main domain (jdunster.com) to this wordpress-hosted site (jrdunster.com). I just got sick of troubleshooting wordpress problems and resolving issues and incompatibilities with my web host. Let WordPress themselves do all the heavy lifting!
So here is a small oil painting of one of my cats, “Minus” (or also known as “Void” because sometimes she seems a little “void” between her ears). She does sometimes bite hands. Very affectionate cat, but sometimes gets overexcited and then…bites.
There is also some news (see reference to “questionable choices” in this post’s title) about…kittens. Yes, I have some new models for my cat paintings.
The neighbors couldn’t keep these kittens and we just couldn’t fathom the idea of leaving them to their fate, so now we have kittens. They’re all adorable, very loving, purr constantly, and are very naughty. (They wouldn’t be normal kittens if they weren’t naughty!)
I’ve already got a few good photos ready to use as painting reference. They’re utterly precious.
The guilt over neglecting this blog has finally become too much! I’m trying to catch up with so many things in the past year. After a lengthy period of sharing caregiving duties with a sister for our mom (who had dementia) the “new normal” is requiring some adjustment. Furthermore, there were other things that have happened in the last year, things that kept me from painting (or updating this blog) as much as I’d like.
I can’t say that everything is now perfect and normal, but when is it ever? All I can say is that things are gently pushing upward. For that I am grateful.
Anyway, I have done many paintings in the last year. I’ll post many of them in future posts, but just want to share a select few here:
Backlit Tiger – 8×8″ oil on canvas panel.
I’m going through a “tiger phase.” This is just one tiger example. I’m not done yet! I’ve got many more tigers (and other big cats) to paint! If painting tigers is wrong, I don’t want to be right! Continue reading “After over a year… (IMAGE DUMP!)”→
This is a blissful-looking kitty! I found the expression irresistible and wanted to capture it in a painting. I loved how many different colors were in the cat’s fur—some green, blue, and orange flecks and reflections are found all over. Continue reading “Content Tabby”→
It’s been a very long time since I’ve posted to this blog, and there’s a good reason for that (which I’ll get to later in this post). Forgive me as this will be long and rambling!
NEW PAINTINGS
First, I want to share two of my latest cat head paintings:
Black and White and Fluffy (#2) 5×7″ oil on oil primed panel. I used a reference photo by a photographer on the “Paint My Photo” community.
