Here is a photo of our cat Callie. She is the subject for my next painting. I will show you the process that I go through to get a completed palette knife painting. This painting is a 20 x 20 inch square. It took me about 4 hours to complete. I have to work quickly in order to get anything done. I like to be able and finish what I have started in one afternoon. I have a difficult time coming back to something. There is always something unexpected that comes up and I wouldn’t know when I would be able to return to my painting, let alone have the inspiration to finish it.
I will start out with a very clear color photo of my subject. This gives me lots of option for details that I can add into my painting. I may or may not use what is in the background. In this case, I left out the ugly water tank in the back. I also added a tuft of grass in the lower left corner. Sometimes I might combine my images to make one painting.
Here I have drawn from free hand using the photo of the cat as my guide. I use a 2B pencil.
As an illustrator I have learned that there are other ways that one might get this initial image on the canvas. You can put the photo into photoshop or another design program and blow it up proportionately to your canvas size. Then you can tile the work and print it to size. When you have taped a full size image you can add graphite to the back of the printed tiled work and retrace on top of where you initially had an image. This will transfer the image with exact proportions to the original photo.
I always work on my easel. I also try to work in the early morning or early afternoon in a well lit room. Today it was a bit cloudy, it was perfect for picture taking.
Here I am putting down some colors that I will use in the background. I first use a fairly large brush watered down with the turpenoid to apply a base color to the background. I am not picky with the type of brush that I use. I usually try to find the one that is not all splayed out from one of the kids using it. It is a rarity if I find a good brush anywhere in my house. This is why I chose to paint with a palette knife. Not to mention that it is easier to tote around one palette knife then a large group of brushes.
I used mainly Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna for the browns and Sap Green with a mixing white for the trees. Prussian Blue with the mixing white is used for the sky. These are the base colors that I begin to lay down on my canvas.
The paint is laid down around the main subject. It is not necessary to be so careful at this stage. The paint should be somewhat translucent.
Now that I have put on the base coat for the ground I will work on the trees and the sky. I make sure that I add color to the sides of the painting also. The brush strokes can go any direction. They will be covered once I start to add the paint with a palette knife. The base coat just helps to cover areas that I may miss while I am painting with the knife.
Next I add the sky and the trees in the background. Again I am not worried at this point which way the brush strokes go.
Here I have started to shade in some darker areas on the cat. I also added the fence that she is sitting on.
Now I begin to add the paint with my palette knife. I wanted to show you the close up of the texture that the palette knife makes. I love the way it looks! I add and mix my colors directly on the canvas as if it where a palette. I use a paper towel to clean my knife when it gets too saturated with the wrong color of paint.
I try to put most of my background color onto the canvas. I then start to add some of the lighter tones and the mid-tones onto the cat. This is Yellow Ochre with a touch of the Burnt Sienna in it.
She looks a bit funny here but it will all come together in the end. When painting I try to pay attention to the light source. This is what makes a painting look realistic. I also do not use black. I mix the cooler colors (blues and purples) for the dark areas and I use warmer tones (reds and yellows) for the highlights. I also make sure that I pay attention to the light blue reflections in the shadows.
Now she has a face. There is still a lot of detailing to add. I am careful with where I add color at this point because the paint is very thick. Especially if I want to add a lighter tone. This is why I don’t put color on the canvas where there may be white. If I put too much of a color I don’t want I will just scrape it off with the palette knife and start over on that section.
Here I start to add more details of the cat’s stripes. I also add more to the background and the grasses on the ground. I also add more details to her eyes.
Almost done! I just need to add the whiskers and my signature. It is alway so much fun to see the final image. I always surprise my self with the final result. It’s hard to imagine what the painting is going to look like when there is just a blank white canvas staring you in the face.
Finished! Yeah! What a fun painting. She looks like a really fat cat! Callie really isn’t as fat as she looks in this painting. It is just the angle that I took the photograph. I like these close ups of animals. I feel like it really shows their personalities. Callie looks a bit like the Cheshire Cat in this painting.
