KATJAS WORK IN PROGRESS BLOG

This is my second pastel portrait I just completed today. I created this portrait on 600 grade UART sanded paper. This sanded paper is great since it’s easier to paint dark’s and light’s on it and the colors stays on. Some people say that so much color is wasted since it’s a sanded paper, but that’s not not true… you don’t really need to waste that many layers of color falling of the paper before achieving the results you want. This is by far better then the velour paper, but I will still try other papers out.

Pastel cat portraits - Alexander

Some time ago I created my very first soft pastel painting of a Papillion named Idefix. I’m actually still learning how to paint with soft pastels and I find it very nice and rewarding. I just love it! This dog portrait was painted on velour paper and I had to work very hard to get things right when painting. I have decided to try different kinds of papers after this one, I’m sure I will find the right paper for myself.

Pastel pet portraits of Papillion

While I was on vacation a client of mine was kind enough to send me some photos she took of her uncle opening his gift, which was a portrait I created for his birthday. It’s a watercolor pet portrait of Farley I painted a while ago. This is what she wrote:

Hi Katja,

I hope you are enjoying the summer.  I just remembered I never sent you the photos of my Uncle George opening up the picture of Farley.  He absolutely loved it!   My aunt and uncle hung said everyone who comes into the room compliments them on the beautiful portrait.  Thanks again!

Take Care,
Sarah Guidotti

Client's photo of painting

Today I went to collect the framed cat portraits of Sirri and Rashi and took some photos of the painting. This Mounling seams to fit many of my portraits and its black with a golden edge. It also have a old look which is beautiful.

Framed cat painting

Framed portrait painting

Framed kitten portrait

Framed cat portrait

This is the final scan of the two kittens Sirri and Rashi.

Cat portrait in oils

Kitten portraits in oils

This is the final scan of Sam. The portrait is relatively small and I have been working from the reference photo you see below. The photo was taken by a Iphone so the photo is also very small. Of course when you come up with something, at the end it looks more like an illustration of that particular cat. Anyway, the client couldn’t provide better photos and Sam is veeery hard to photograph. I’m sure she will be delighted with the final painting anyway, but it’s the last time I paint this way.

cat portraits in oil

So  oil painting of leopard is completed and I scanned the big cat earlier today. The oil painting was commissioned by Orsa Grönklitt, Sweden and will be printed on their products. I will also use this one for open edition Giclées, Wildlife Art Prints in near future as I really love this painting. The painting is relatively small, 38 x 46cm for a full body with backgrounds, but it turned out good anyway.

Wildlife Art of Leopard

Big Cat painting in oil - Leopard resting

The painting of Glinka is finally completed and was dry enough today for me to scan. The problem with black is that it shines allot before it’s dry, that doesn’t look good when scanned. I rather wait and get it right then hurry it all. When the portrait is sent to the client I will never be able to scan it again and I really want to have my scanned portraits beautiful to show in the online gallery for as long as I want. So here she is:

Now back to work….

Dog painting in oils - Tervueren Glinka

Tervueren ( Tervuren) oil portrait painting

So I went to collect the framed watercolor painting of Farley and took some photos of it earlier. I think it looks awesome!

Framed watercolor portrait

Framed Farley

Framed dog portrait

So today I decided to just complete the painting without any more stages uploading in the blog. The reason for this is that I just couldn’t  stop painting it today and why stop when everything goes so well!? Anyways, I think this Dog Portrait turned out very well and this is now my favorite watercolor Portrait. I don’t have a clue why though, perhaps because of the colors. This photo taken of the Watercolor is a bit bigger then the original, so of course the original looks even better. I hope you like it

Tomorrow I will keep working on the illustration logo which I started to work on last week. It will be interesting how this will turn out too, but I’m pretty confident it will look awesome. Its just so much fun to paint on a drawing pad every once in a while.

Watercolor Dog Portraits