Hello there. I'm Byron from Canada and I normally draw zombies but sometimes I just have to pick up the paint brush and get messy with the paint. A few years ago there was a mental low point for me and my artistic drive was gone. Artist block hits hard some days and like most artists, I have to find my own way through it.
Whenever I hit a slump like that I often remind myself of what my teacher told me. Go Back to Basics.
So that's what I did.
I grabbed paint, a bunch of 4"x6" papers (my go to paper size) and asked the internet to show me their cats because I wanted to paint some horrible portraits.
I don't remember exactly which one was painted first or which was last. They were all done around the same time and most are gloopy acrylic paint and a crappy brush scraped around the paper.
Felix might have been the first painting before the series began. I probably got lucky with this one and thus inspired to try again. Since I've always been one to be a spectacle, I started taking requests to paint peoples cats.
This cat was another early attempt but I was filled with some doubts so the pens came out and 'enhanced' the painting. They yellow gel pens are much more vibrant in real life and cause the eyes to almost glow.
The next cat was actually my own cat Sebastian. You can still see the hesitation in the brush strokes as well as my lingering addiction to using the gel pens to add details, like the whiskers.
With these two I went all in and used nothing but the brushes. You can easily tell that I wasn't super comfortable with it all and was grateful that I called these my Horrible Cat Portraits. I still like this one but it's definitely rough and very impressionistic.
With this Blue Tuxedo cat I began to use the brush strokes to define the flow of the cat fur to define the shape of the cat itself. I think I managed to get some interesting effects and it really gave the cat a painted look.
I tried to do the same with this cat. Use the brush to shape the paint into the direction of the fur. I got a bit carried away with how much paint I used and some parts got extra thick with the acrylic. I also tried to use the natural white of the paper to define the white fur in this feline.
This next cat is one of those extra furry breeds with super soft fur. I found it quite a challenge to paint it in a way that conveyed the fluffy furriness of this feline. It almost became a bit of a horror cat. It's not my most favourite cat painting but something about it really strikes a chord with me.
With this kitty I tried to focus on the distinct markings it has and use those to define the head shape. Thick brush strokes of yellow and blue over the orange really helped to capture the essence and unique look of this tabby.
This beautiful blue beast turned out pretty good, even if that means I'm tooting my own horn. I used a thick brush but thin paint and scraped it across the paper. It took several layers and as the paint dried the stickiness of it helped enhance the brushstroke effect on the fur.
This cat painting was a spastic attack that turned out really well. With this one the painting process was to be as fast as possible with no time to think and second guess myself.
This orange tabby is based on my late cat George and I focused on using simple oranges, yellows and a bit of red to capture his distinct markings. I miss George.
This last pussy cat didn't quite work out properly. I used to much green on a green background. I don't remember why I chose green, I suppose I wanted to be different or infuse a bit of the Zombie Cat into the series. Either way, the green on green caused the whole image to look like one blurry green mess. So I took out the gel pens and defined the whole cat.
So there you have a dozen cat paintings that were created a few years ago in an attempt to get past an artistic block. I made these all available as Digital Collectibles on the WAX blockchain.
That's about it for now. I feel like I need to make a new series of horrible cat portraits soon. What do you think? Would you volunteer your cat?
Cheers!
Byron
www.artistbyroh.ca
