Francais...sous construction..... a venir bientot !

1rst & 2nd Step....... As in all art, you have to start off with a good drawing and a good subject. Suzanne Merrill who owns and Breeds Bengal cats in Keilworth, Ontario ( Abundadots ), sent me two pictures of awesome Servals. She asked me to put the kitten with the adult to do a composition for her. I started out with masking the servals. Sprayed the background, with a mixture of transparent tropical green and black airbrush paint. I usually do this late afternoon, to let the paint dry over night for the next steps.Step # 2 Here I used yellow/ gold transparent paint to give depth to the background and to the future leaves that I will put in......I know.....it looks awful now,but wait :)I let this dry overnight, this is important, because I use a high tack mask and If the paint isn't dry enough, its a disaster ! The paint comes off with the second stage of the masking. eg: step # 4 , and this is NO fun, I would have to start all over : (

Step 3 , 4, 5 : It's been drying over night.I take off the mask on the Servals, and mask the background.( step 4) This is done by using a special Exacto ( mine looks like a pen, very small ) Now I draw in the eyes, to position myself and when I start to airbrush I will know where to situate my paint. Step 5 : Now the fun begins :) !This is done freehand, no masking. I used transparent dark brown..this is to get out the muscles on the Serval. You have to remember the roundness of the cat and the physiognomy .I added burnt sienna paint to get the lighter shades, and mixed that with a bit of white. Now I added the black for those awesome spots ! If you look closely you can see that I masked the kitten, as not to get paint fume on it. I Forgot to tell you that step,..sorry.

Step 6, 7, 8: Step 6.....now the kitten. I pre-cut a loose mask for the kitten , as to not put any paint fume on the adult Serval.I used the same colors as the adult, same technique. Step 7 & 8: Now this time consuming !!!!!! Belive me !I start the brush, I use a #000 and sometimes a #00 paint brush for the fur. This is an important part.I have to get movement in the fur of the Servals.In step 8, I added a light blue to get our eye to those exotic spots. Black is never pure..it has reds..blues...and purple shades. If you look at a crow, it has a range of blues and purples,and even greens..what a bird !This will maybe my next painting...ok.....I got carried off here.

Step 9,10 : ok.........now I do the rest, face and body.The kitten is the last I do. Sorry for the flash on the paintings,taking photos is not one of my talents. But if you saw the picture on top of the page click on it.....Suzanne Merrill sent me the paintings photo. Thanks Suzanne !!!!! : ) .