J Dunster Art Blog – Oil Painting, Portraits, and Cats
Figurative art, oil & acrylic painting, figure drawing, and cat portraits
I’m very behind in posting my latest cat head paintings. This post will allow me to catch up!
Such an attitude! I loved painting this kitty. But then again, I always love painting the cat heads. Continue reading “Cat heads, cat heads, cat heads, & other updates”
A recent effort! Jabba the Cat was done as a class project, for an oil painting student I’m currently teaching. We wanted to tackle the many different values and colors in a white animal–where are the values (lights and darks) the lightest? How light? How dark? Continue reading “Jabba the Cat, and the Clague workshop”
He just seems so regal, and dare I say it, full of himself. (I’m only assuming this is a male cat. I’m not really sure!) Continue reading “His Royal Orangeness – in ACRYLIC”
Another cat head! As you know, I love painting the cat heads.
This painting was used as an exercise for some oil painting classes. (Yes, I now am teaching!) I wanted to start my student out with a simple, limited palette, and the Zorn Palette is well suited for that. Continue reading “Zorn Cat”
And here is a post where I will rhapsodize about art materials.
But first, about the painting of the day, “Pretty & Fluffy Kitty.” Continue reading “Pretty & Fluffy Kitty”
I wanted to do an itty-bitty painting, and finally got around to painting this orange, fluffy cat head. I tried to keep the brush strokes more spontaneous, but alas, I must fuss. For a little 4×4″ painting, there is a lot of detail, I suppose! Continue reading “Fluffy and Orange”
This white kitty was so adorable and all the colors in his fur were fascinating to try to capture. This is a slightly different pose for me, as I often paint just the head of the cat. (I call these paintings my Cat Head Paintings.) Well, this is still a Cat Head, but we have some paws and some indication of a body. Woo hoo, I’m moving outside my comfort zone! 😉 Continue reading “With a Black Spot on His Nose – Cat Head”
Little fluffy kitten, how could I resist painting you? You are beyond adorable! Continue reading “Fluffy Siamese Kitten”
Here are two “new” paintings that are actually old paintings that I finally decided to finish up and post online!
I liked this very simple cat portrait—just the silhouette, with a little light touching the sides of the body, and the tip of the tail. It’s that tip of the tail that really catches my eye. I fussed with this painting off and on, and finally decided that simple was best, put a fork in it, it is done!
This second painting is a portrait of fellow artist Pavina. She sometimes models for our art / drawing groups, and during some of these modeling sessions I took a series of photos of her. This little oil sketch uses one of these photos. Continue reading “Cat in Silhouette & Pink Ribbon”
Annnnnd . . . it’s another cat head! I love painting the cat heads, as if that wasn’t already abundantly clear!
I’ve found a rich source of cat head references, at PaintMyPhoto. Fellow PaintMyPhoto member Inge Dagmar Manders has generously provided several lovely photos of her kitties, and this is (I believe) the second photo of hers that I’ve used as reference for a painting. This is of her cat “Rocky.” He appears, at least in this pose, to be the epitome of innocence, with beautiful aqua eyes and a sincere look. Very likely Inge has a different opinion of him, knowing how cats will be!
What I loved about this kitty was the abundance of colors found in the fur. Warm and cool, pinks in the ears, around the nose and mouth. Blues and warm grays elsewhere, battling for attention, shaping the structure of the cat’s head. All wonderful stuff, I love it!
I painted this on a SourceTek panel (which you can buy at canvaspanels.com). Portrait-weave, oil-primed linen on Baltic Birch. What’s not to love? And love it I do! I have a lot of SourceTek panels stockpiled!