Window / Door / Portal - Homework Painting 1

The general homework assignment for the July meeting of my painting class/club is windows, doors, or portals. While I put myself through a significant amount of angst figuring out what to paint for our last assignment, this one is starting out much easier. If the windows in the house are closed for several days, the cats are highly motivated to hang out in the windows when the windows are opened back up again.  They love to experience the world through an open window and this seems very much in keeping with the theme or a portal or entrance to another world, since the cats are all indoor house cats. I've had several good photo sessions with them and ended up with some good pictures. I'm especially thrilled that several of the pictures show a reflection in the window. I selected the one with the simplest reflection for my first attempt.

For my skill level, this is a complicated scene for me. I am still the most comfortable dealing with one object per painting. It's really good practice and experience to tackle an entire scene with multiple objects and many more decisions to make. I was surprised at how "real" the purple garage looks. Another thing to note is that I continue to feel more "in control" of my values and use of color. For instance, the indoor colors were more muted, since they weren't in natural light. The outdoors really did pop in places. For an editing standpoint, the eyes don't quite work. They are too big, so I might fix that. I also might work on his tail, since it sort of disappears.  

This was painted in two sessions and I'm glad that I did not rush. 

While I miss posting more frequently on this blog, it's been more important to fit in the minimum of 30 minutes of drawing each day, which gets replaced by two longer sessions of drawing in public each week. This was the recommendation post-drawing class and so far, I've continued with it.