Making progress ...

I'm currently working on a commission of a sweet kitty named Molly.  Unfortunately, Molly has been under the weather so she isn't feeling too perky.  I spent some time with Molly and tried to get as many photos as I could and then presented the owner with a selection of choices for the portrait.

I started by glazing my canvas with a light pink background using acrylic paint.  The pink will shine through the final painting and give it a nice glow and a cohesiveness that is otherwise hard to achieve.

I then stretch rubber bands across the painting to create a grid so that I can accurately transfer my reference photo to the canvas.  I use my tablet to display my reference photo which is incredibly handy since I can enlarge an area to get a closer look.

You may notice in the color photo of Molly (see below), there is a blank gray area above her head.  I added this space so that I could straighten out her ears and give a little breathing room at the top.

Whenever I work on a commission, I really take my time.  I will start rendering Molly's eyes and nose since they are the most critical elements.  Hopefully I'll have an update to share very soon!