Watercolor Pet Portrait – Grey Striped Cat “Fleo”

This is an 8 x 10 inch gallery wrapped watercolor portrait of a grey striped cat that reminds me of one of my favorite cats, “Fleo.”

Watch the video HERE!

When we were growing up in Mifflin County, PA, we lived on a small farm. Maybe not a farm as most people know it, but it had a barn, built by my father, a garden, and a partially built solar rabbit house.

Dad’s barn

We had at least two horses and a pony, belonging to my sisters (they had the horses, I played trumpet), white rabbits, goats, and a friendly border collie named Dolly who loved to get loose and roll around in smelly things. We also had cats – tons of them – all living outside. And I had a black/grey striped cat named “Fleo” – this painting is created in remembrance of him.

I especially enjoyed working on the eyes – the different greens and yellows. The fur was a challenge – lots of layers and tiny flicks of the brush.

The painting is created on Arches Cold Press paper, gallery wrapped on a wooden frame. It will be protected with coatings of Krylon UV-Resistant Clear Acrylic coating spray, and then either varnish or Dorland’s wax medium. I want to thank cocoparisian from Pixabay for the detailed reference photo.

Here you can see what a gallery wrapped painting looks like – the gallery is growing!

STEP BY STEP PROCESS

Arches Gallery Wrapped Cold Press paper – I learned to gallery wrap using Doris Joa’s tutorial.

Winsor & Newton Professional watercolor paints:

Blacks and Greys created with a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber
Nose – a mix of Yellow Ochre and Permanent Rose
Eyes – Winsor Lemon, Winsor Blue, Sap Green, Olive Green, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber

First Three Photos

Wet the entire area, except for the eyes and the nose. Allow the water to sink in, and then drop in a watery grey mix of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber. Dry completely. When dry, drop in some more grey mix in the darkest areas.

Dampen the eyes and drop in Winsor Lemon, a watery to creamy consistency. Avoid the highlights. Dampen the nose and drop in a pinkish mix of Yellow Ochre and Permanent Rose.

In the third photo I started to put in the darkest areas of fur and markings. I need a map so I won’t get lost later on.

Dampen the eyes and drop in a creamy consistency of Sap Green, leaving some areas of yellow around the edges of the eye. Drops of Winsor Blue in the highlights (white areas) to show reflections of the sky. In the third photo I inserted the pupil with a thick black mix of Ultramarine Blue/Burnt Umber. The nose is wet in wet – Creamy to thick consistency of the mix of Yellow Ochre and Permanent Rose. Some areas are more pink, some are more rust colored. Still working on the darkest markings with a dark grey mix of Ultramarine Blue/Burnt Umber.

Now that the darkest markings are in place, I start to insert fur markings with light flicks of the brush. It’s now time to balance out the lightest areas, darkest areas, and the mid-tones. The final markings in the eyes were created using dry brush – different greens, browns, depending on what I see.

After the fur is complete, I gently dampen the entire head (not the eyes or nose) to smooth out the fur, and then put in final details – darken areas, balance out tones.

I wasn’t happy with the chin and jawline, so I did some careful lifting off of paint and adjusted to achieve better balance.