Last month I was commissioned to make a couple of cat portraits as a birthday gift for my client's girlfriend. He really liked my characters with their big eyes and rosy cheeks and wanted something similar done with his girlfriend's cats: Molly and Church. I don't often draw animals, but I was interested in finding out how cats in my style would look.
I started out by just drawing simple, but representational drawings of both cats from photos I was sent. Then I exaggerated the size of the head and eyes.
I spent several hours working on the painting of Church, but I really wasn't happy with where it was going. I was getting caught up in the details and the image was getting too realistic.
It didn't feel like my work.
So I started over.
I went back to my sketches and decided that I hadn't pushed the exaggeration far enough. I made the heads and eyes even bigger.
Here's some photos I took of the painting process for Church's portrait:
Here's the final portraits:
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