Surprise - - It's A Painting Of A Cat!

I had some goals for what I wanted to accomplish with this painting, namely:

• Less blocky long paint strokes and more thumbprint paint strokes. 
• Better ears.
• Less defined edges.
• More suggestion.
• More black gesso showing through the darkest parts.
• More variety, overall.

Dorian - 03/04/17

Overall, I am pleased. The face shape is better, but the tilt of the face is off. While this did not fulfill all of my goals, it felt like I was going in a different or new direction, which is hard. It's especially hard for me to suggest. I struggle with wanting to define. The ear on the left could use a little work, but I am going to leave it. It was a good attempt at a suggestion, but where the ear connects to the rest could be grounded to the rest of the face a bit more.  

The next time I paint something other than a tree I might try to only use thumbprint type paint strokes. I tried to have more in this painting, but managed to cover most of them up. 

I've painted from this picture one other time and it helps me to compare to the earlier attempt.

Dorian - 11/29/16

Here is the picture. I love this picture. Dorian does not like having her picture taken. She usually scowls and/or turns away. As a kitten, I tried to take pictures of her with a flash too many times.