Yaman is his Daddy’s best friend.

Where Mitchell is, Yaman is.  If I can’t find Mitchell in the studio I look for our panther-cat to be sitting outside a closed door, waiting impatiently to be let in.  There is jealousy and rivalry between he and I, on his part, not mine, though it can be irritating when it kicks in… When we are talking, unless Yaman is on Mitchell’s lap, Yaman  circles us and yeowls, “me me ME!”

He is an excellent shop-cat, except for his tendency to want to steal shiny objects, which is where he got his nickname, CrowCat, not from his black fur, as some imagine.  In this image you can see him on top of cattle-tail and horse hair in the upholstery studio, where Mitchell had begun stitching the hair into place with spring twine.  He is considering the spring twine, but he has his paw on the 5-inch curved needle.  His paw says, “Mine!”  There will be a small tussle getting it away from him, and of course Mitchell will win.

Then for a bit he is banned from being a HelperCat, and has to sit on the high swivel chair and watch from a distance.  This never lasts… The minute Mitchell steps out of the upholstery studio he goes back to his spot on the settee.

A couple of things to note:

• The cats are not allowed in the studio unless our clients have cats as well, because of allergies.
• All cats get their nails clipped weekly.  While they are good about using scratching pads (we have them EVERYWHERE), we don’t give them the opportunity.  Wednesday night is beauty night, and they all have their nails clipped and a good combin’!
• The cats travel from home to studio with us daily, only occasionally staying in the studio or at home without us.  It is a lot of work but it is worth it!  Their company, and their antics, relieves the long hours we spend working.

PROCESS

Pencil sketch first.  Sometimes I erase my sketch lines but I didn’t on this image. I have gotten better at sketching the cats, and always work from a photo.  I cannot imagine trying to sketch them in motion.  Even if they are asleep, they have a sixth sense that tells them when I am sketching them and then disappear.  They apparently think we will capture their soul!

I started laying in color with the backgrounds, above: wall, settee, hair and spring twine.  I finished the settee, below.

Usually I use waterproof inks for some of the under-shadows, but this time I stuck to watercolors only.  I am happy I experimented, but they moved too much.  I wanted to influence Yaman’s fur, which is nearly blue-black with white tips in some areas as he has gotten older.  The under-shadows pretty much disappeared into the watercolor layers.

Because I paint the cats so much, long ago I mixed a palette just for them, shown right.  I have two colors mixed for Yaman’s fur, and several greys for the tabbies.  Savitri, his sister, looks like a Siamese, and she has three custom mixes.  Then there are the nose, ear and eye colors, pinks and greens.

I layered the final fur watercolors, left and below.

A thin white Uniball pen gave him his whiskers.

I used a white Prismacolor pencil for the tips of his fur.  This white-tipped fur came on as he approached his fifth year.

Below, completion.  I am so pleased with Yaman’s portrait.  I have had such trouble capturing him and this is the first time I feel good about the watercolors!

Do you enjoy the stories of cat antics?
Do tell in comments, and follow for more!

Unknown Hahnemuhle paper (oops),
Pentalic HB woodless pencil, white Prismacolor pencil, White Uniball Signo,
Sennelier, Holbein and Daniel Smith Watercolors.

 ©D. Katie Powell.
My images/blog posts may be reposted; please link back
to dkatiepowellart and drop me a note @dkatiepowell @aol.com.