A box of floof

 

Some months ago I decided I wanted to start improving my skills in painting cats and I asked my daughter Mariska for some pictures of her two furry companions. She shares her home with a European shorthaired cat and a Ragdoll cat. 

This picture, of her Ragdoll cat inside a big brown box is my first attempt at painting him.

Of course I started making a sketch after the reference picture and with some corrections that went well. The real challenge is to make the drawing again on watercolour paper, in a slightly different size. That could have gone better, but using a soft pencil and a soft eraser the corrections do not damage my paper.

Painting the fluffy fur was also a bit of a challenge, but in this case is was sufficient to make a very soft edge where the fur ends and the box becomes visible. Because his face is so dark and in the shadows, the nose and cheeks cannot be distinguished by a change in colour. 

The whiskers are painted with white watercolour paint. Maybe a white pencil would have had better, whiter results, that is an idea for the next painting.

The information about the paper and paints I have used, the size and availability of this watercolour painting can be found in the link at the 'Galerie' page of my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com