Amare, Finished

"Amare" 8 x 8 inches, Oil on Gessoboard

Sold - Thank you.

Amare is finally finished.

Me to Amare's pet mom:

"Oh what a beautiful cat!  I've never seen a cat like yours...I just have to paint him" That came right out of my mouth just as I was thinking it.

Amare is a beautiful cat, but painting his portrait, even with great photography would not be easy for two reasons:

1.  He's all black and therefore very hard to see and paint enough contrast to show his bone structure.

2.  He has very thick and long fur, which creates the same problem for seeing bone structure.

All you artists reading this know just how hard it is to paint "form" when you can't see cast shadows or enough of a value range.  Items look flat.  Deep down inside my artist soul, I was up for a challenge.  I was challenged.  The Amare muse and me wrestled for almost three days to include scraping off  and trying another time more than once.  I think I got what I wanted.  A painted portrait of a very stunning cat.

Amare's eyes just stunned me and I wanted to show that in his portrait.  Second was his beautiful fur.  At the very last and because he's a much loved cat living a bit of an enchanted life...I sprinkled some fairy dust around his whiskers.