About the Cat Portrait Commission of Max
Rebecca emailed in 2017 to find out if I would be able to portray her cat Max who had sadly passed away. She had kept his ashes and a few of his whiskers and wanted them included in the portrait. I was delighted to oblige. Rebecca sent lots of photos of Max, however the best one for the portrait showed him with his eyes closed. Luckily, there was another photo of Max, not quite right for a portrait, however his eyes were fully open, and I was able to use that photo as a reference for his eyes.
His eyes were also a beautiful colour blue, and so Rebecca and I discussed the possibility of using coloured pencil as a feature in the drawing. I have done this before on portraits and feel it is often a really good addition.
Rebecca asked if it was possible to paint his name with the ashes, which I did, mixing it with a little PVA glue, and you can see the results below in the framed photos. Originally, we were going to add the whisker as an exclamation mark, however, the whisker was very long and the space for it by the name was fairly limiting. So instead, I glued the whisker in place of a drawn one on the actual portrait. You can see it if you stand in front of the portrait, and it was a really lovely delicate and personal touch. Scroll down to see more photos and read testimonials from Rebecca too!
