Long-Haired Orange Cat Watercolor

This is the softest rug in our house, the one the cats love to loll over. For that reason, the rug usually has an added layer of black fur stuck to it. I vacuumed the rug before starting this painting. Vacuuming is a rarity in our house, so I thought I should memorialize the moment.

In the finished painting, you may notice that the rug is a darker green color. That was intentional. The point of view is looking almost straight down at the carpet, making the picture even flatter. So I decided to intensify the color contrasts between green rug and orange cat, as well as to darken some shadows that were much softer.

If you’d like to paint along, you can print out my initial sketch by clicking this Long Haired Orange Cat Sketch

As usual, I change things as I go along. The sketch is just for transferring my lines, and isn’t meant as artwork in itself. Partway through the video, you may notice that I decided to paint out the cat’s back left leg because it’s position seemed awkward to me.