Cathbad is a lovely white and tabby bicolour cat. I painted his portrait a few weeks ago with acrylics on canvas. The painting is 30 x 20 cm in size. It was commissioned as a gift for his owner’s special birthday. She adopted Cathbad a year ago from the ISPCA and he is now her beloved pet. The painting was commissioned by her friend. She gave me a few photographs and we decided to work with one of Cathbad sitting up in his bed. I removed the background and created a simple shaded one. Cathbad has some lovely shadows around his eyes in the photo and I amplified them in the painting to make him look life like.
The client was really happy with the painting and sent me a lovely email when she received it in the post:
Ivana, the portrait arrived last week. My friend was delighted with it and amazed that you were able to produce such a good likeness from photos. Everyone who saw it thought it very life like and were really impressed. Thank you for making a special occasion really special.
Bridget, Castlemartyr, County Cork, Ireland
I worked the painting with acrylics on stretched fine canvas. To keep Cathbad the focus of the portrait, I simplified the background. I wanted the painting to feel warm, so I used earth colours like burnt umber and yellow ochre. I am including the reference photo and some progress photos below.
