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, but 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!
