Vevay Cat Portrait

I started on another portrait commission this past week. I am doing a 9 X 12 size color portrait of a sienna brown & white cat with short churly hair whose name is "Vevay". It is a specific breed of cat called a Cornish Rex. (See March 30th blog entry for a photo of Vevay.) I recently discovered a new kind of drawing surface/paper to use with colored pencil & turpenoid. The client who ordered this portrait of Vevay gave me some illustration board to use because she doesn't use them anymore. Since they are so stiff, I wasn't sure that they would work well with colored pencil & turpenoid, but they actually work better. This board has a very smooth & thick surface and when I put down the turpenoid over the colored pencil, it makes it look even more like smooth watercolor. I think it distributes the color more evenly than with watercolor paper. The only problem is it is very, very hard to cut.

I have also gotten some time in here and there to work on my next installment of Leavenworth, Washington series of artwork pieces. I would say it is about 60% done. June has always been such a busy month for me that it is always hard to get in enough time for creating art. I am usually doing more marketing and selling than creating. Some of my time has also been devoted to landscaping projects, which is a kind of design project in itself, but I look forward to being done with the landscaping so I can get back to the business of creating art.