Millie Cat - Preview

A deep dive into painting complex patterns on an animal, in this case, one of my two wonderful cats, Millie.

All of the information in this tutorial can be easily applied to any pet, or even any animal/wildlife portrait full stop.

In short, you don't have to own a cat (or even be a “cat person” to get plenty out of this one!)

You may even wish to follow this as a study and then apply the same approach to one of your own pets, or somebody else's - perfect and just in time for Christmas cards; or even a present if it goes really well! ;)

All of the usual principles and elements of watercolour are at play here. We do touch on photographing your own pet, or animals in general, and what to look for. As well as masking fluid versus scratching out and opaque paint.

Finally, this is an interesting tutorial, as by the School Tutorial standards we build this up quite slowly with a few extra layers than normal; although we are still trying to retain that loose feel of mark-making and not go too heavy with the paint!

Enjoy!