Eliza the Cat

    Hello again, all those arty types out there,
I wanted to share with you, my latest commission- Eliza, the beautiful tortoiseshell cat. It is always an honour to try and capture the personality of a much cherished, and sadly missed pet. Her owner seemed genuinely moved to see the portrait, so I hope that I came somewhere close to achieving that.

16 x 26cm

  
  With her myriad of colours, she was quite a challenge! (She seemed to look different in each photo, so in the the end, I tried to take an 'average reading' of her colouring).
By all accounts, she was quite a regal creature, and I strived to get this across. This garden step was her favourite place- and on it, she looked like a queen on her throne!


  I was asked to keep the background white, so I used a plain white, quality cartridge paper- the whitest I could find. It had a smooth texture, and whilst not as easy to work on as the Fisher Pastel Paper, was perfect for the building up of layers of tone and colour. Again, I used WH Smith pencils, and love the way they layer to make new tones and colours (I'm going to have to invest in some more very soon, as they're down to little stubs now!).


  The client wanted to mount and frame the drawing herself, so I worked to the dimensions of the frame, endeavouring to make sure that the drawing would sit well within the mount.


  I hope that she will enjoy looking at it, and that it will bring back many happy memories of a dear friend.