I love creating, which of course is why art is so enjoyable to me! When I want to give someone a gift that comes from the heart, I tend to use art as my method to do so. I create a painting for them that’s a representation of something significant in their life.
This specific piece is an example of just that! One of my friends has a cat that is essentially his son. The last time I petted the little guy I was looking at his cute face and thought of painting him, but then his eyes caught my attention. As I was looking at his eyes and noticed that the right one had unique distinct features and that’s what I decided to paint. For his birthday I wanted to create a piece that conveyed a sense of sweetness, happiness, and tenderness.
The Sketch
I was thinking about how people usually feel when their pets are looking up at them, tenderly with love and affection. It’s almost like they’re looking at you with heart eyes, like the emojis. For this reason, the pupil needed to be a heart.
The cat's actual eye is primarily green but there's a gradient from yellow to blue that I wanted to accentuate.
I wanted to play with the circular and heart shapes as well. Since this piece was representing something “organic” I didn’t feel the need to make the proportions or lines as precise as I could’ve but I still wanted it to look neat. I allowed the heart to morph into the circular shape since the canvas itself is a circle, and so are eyes.
Fixing a mistake
The plan was to paint the outer circle yellow, the middle circles would be green, the second to last shape before the pupil would be blue, then the pupil itself would be black.
I got cute for work then went back to painting. I totally did not reference my sketch and accidentally painted the next line blue…. :’) .
To fix it, I painted all of the areas that were supposed to be green, blue, so they’d all have the same undercoat. Then I went into mixing the next color, lime green because it’s closest to yellow and I wanted the painting to pop. Next I added blue because I was thinking “okay yeah, yellow, green, then blue.” but I needed the blue to be tighter to the pupil and green to be the main color because the cat's eyes aren’t blue. They’re green.
Adding Colors
I ended up adding more greens and blues to the gradient until I felt that they looked unified within the piece, kind of like an aura orb. I wanted green to be the most prominent color in the painting. The yellow adds a sense of joy and the blue adds a sense of calmness, but together there’s a positive connection.
Since the little guy (the cat) has some brown in his eye, I used hearts as it’s representation to match the shape of the pupil. I only did two brown hearts because I like things that come in three (three hearts, two brown ones and one black one). It just feels more complete that way.
After painting the pupil, I finished the side by painting the border of the canvas black. I usually like using black for the sides of a piece unless there’s a specific reason to use a different color. Then it was time for the outline!
The Outline
This is always one of my favorite parts because it’s what adds balance and brings the piece together.
I decided on a mix of white and black lines. After adding the black lines, I added in the white. Lastly I added a white line on the outer green ring so that there would be three white lines total.
Then it was complete, except for the varnish.
Final Gloss Coat
For the gloss I used two thin coats of Gamvar gloss. I poured this straight onto the canvas but on the first coat I used way too much so I let it drip off the side and then I cleaned it up. This gloss is a little weird because it stays tacky for a long time and the excess that was on the plate, since it was more than a thin brushed layer, didn’t dry at all. Not that it needed to, but just as an observational note!
"The End." Now, ready to be gifted...Oh, and he loved it!
(This is the cats eye that was the inspiration for this piece. There is a bit more blue towards the pupil when looking at it straigt on, in person.)
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