WIP: Domestic Longhair Cat

I know...I'm obsessed with taking progress photos. But really, it's more for me than you. Looking at the photo after I take it helps me see the big picture so I can easily see where I am and what I need to correct.
It's sort of like blurring your eyes to see the values, or walking far away to look back at your work in progress.

Plus, it gives me more information to post...because I am not that verbose (but I can impress you with my vocabulary).

So, the first step...sorta. I used vine charcoal and the yellow at the same time to block in the darks and lights. The background was the next step. I'm trying to REMEMBER that backgrounds are as important to the painting as the rest of it. I can't pretend it was that hard here...there's not that much background.

 

Adding green and pops of yellow to the background, but keeping it blurry.

 

 Adding white, black, orange and light purple/lavendar.

 

Smoothing out areas and adding detail to others...

 

Filling out the face, adding whiskers...and repeating the dance of smoothing out areas and adding detail to others.

 

Add a few more black and brown areas to the face. Added more lavendar to the bottom right to balance this color with the top left. Cropped the painting to how I think I will frame it (minus the tape on the bottom and right).