The Studio Cat

This is Wilko, my faithful studio companion back in the day when I used to work in the back bedroom of our victorian terrace, well over a decade ago now. Sadly, he is no longer with us but I was lucky enough to take a great snapshot of him being his usual adorable self, sitting amongst all of my art-making equipment.

Although this is digital work using chalk pastel in the art package ArtRage 5, I am classing it as a painting due to how it was rendered; laying down the colours in the same way that I would if I were using oil or acrylic paint and a brush. I am also a huge fan and lifelong follower of the late great Paula Rego whose pastel works are also described as paintings too, so I am in good company!

This image shows how the pastel tool interacts with the digital substrate emulating a textured pastel mat surface, creating that authentic pastel on the paper look and feel.

The beauty of this software is in how versatile it is allowing me to vary the weight of each mark, leaving some to remain blunt and textured and softening other areas by softly blending the marks.

The images below show a partial time-lapse of the work in progress, although, sadly I don't have the very first images showing the drawing stages.

Please click on the image to the far left and toggle through to see how the painting progresses to a finish.

This is the completed painting next to my reference picture. Notice how I have edited out some of the details in the fore and background and worked with the tonality to flood more light into the shaded areas of his face and body.

I wanted to capture the immediacy of the snapshot in time, where he had just turned his head as I called his name so I could take the picture, so the mark-making had to be quite loose and open in the fur and a little tighter and smoother in the paint tubes, etc.