The Cats Won!

November 4, 2024: So I went to my Saturday class and kept dotting away, but I suddenly realized that I was putting on more dots than needed, and each of my cats were starting to look “crowded” —- my way of saying that I was overdoing the dots. So I stood up, moved away from the painting, and discovered my problem.

You see, my teacher informed me two weeks’ prior that my background and the cats were applied using two different styles — and “competing for first place”, as it were. Which was going to dominate my painting? The cats or the background.

So back to last Saturday — and the overdotting which I was doing to compensate for the background. So I was in danger of ruining a whole lot of very hard, meticulously applied paint dots to compete with the background, which was sponged, pretty, and…well…the background!

Elizabeth (my teacher) and I hummed and hawed over the painting, and after some time, I made up my mind to “white” the background. “Whiting” (in this case) involves a a slightly-more-than-damp sponge, white painting, and careful application. I wanted the background patterns to be visible, but not dominate. The cats need to be the focus, especially Tiger Kitty (the one in the lower center). So that really helped!

What else helped was some revamping of Mean Kitty (lower right). In my reference, his eyes are barely visible, but I couldn’t do that on the painting —- yet, he still needs to look mean. So I took some artistic license and lightened his eyes a bit without taking away the menacing stare. Shoot, how can a cat look menacing if the eyes can’t be seen, right?

Right?