Using Several Photos to Create an Animal Painting

Alette has sent me her painting of a tabby cat she has just completed and has asked for my comments using my kitten project techniques as a reference. Alette wanted the cat lying down but did not have a suitable reference photo to work from. She used several other photos one of which is below to give her the colours etc. and considering the degree of difficulty this posed she has done a great job.I have to say first off that the eyes are remarkable and the colours she has chosen were spot on.The problem with making such dramatic changes is that you are relying very much on you own imagination as to how you feel this should look and this approach rarely works.The main problem is that there is no contrast tones to separate the different areas of the body, at the moment everything appears flat. If we study the photograph for a moment the red arrows indicate where the reference photo shows distinct areas of separation and would be easy to portray these.However the black arrows show areas where it is difficult to determine the separation which means we have to work harder for separate them we must. These are just a few pointers where the beginner would have problems but once we are aware of them and know how important it is to follow the rules we can at least work to that end. The corresponding arrows on the painting shows where these rules would apply.If you would like feedback on your artwork, join Colin's exclusive membership and access over 200 lessons on how to draw with pastel pencils.