I love painting my Cats in Hats acrylic paintings and they have proved very, very popular! I thought I'd show you behind the scenes of one of my most recent acrylic paintings "Titfer Kitty".
Here is the model for this painting posing with his best friend my next door neighbour's black and white cat Billy! They are always together and follow each other everywhere. I don't know his name yet as I'm still trying to work out where he lives but he is always in my garden searching for Billy to come out and play with him and I couldn't resist painting him as he is quite scruffy but still has a lovely face.
I decided to take one of my many photos of him and messed about with him on Photoshop putting various hats on him until I decided he just looked so right in a very dapper top hat and goggles!
I hate working on a white canvas so always try to get rid of the white as soon as I can. I thought he would work well on a red background. Here it is on my easel with a very rough pencil drawing to work from.
The next step I block in as much of the image as I can, keeping it very simple. He has a very cute smile here!
A few more layers and details added and he is starting to come together. A bit more work on the hat and goggles and then always the final touch of adding the whiskers!
The finished painting. The painting is resting on our barbecue as I find it has an interesting background for these paintings and I always try to take the photos in lots of natural light for the best effect.
He also now features on a greeting card and should be in my new calendar that I produce every year around September time.
And will be added to the hall of fame of my many other Cats in Hats paintings!
Clare xx
