This is the finished portrait of Charlie, my beautiful bengal cat. It’s a  20×16 acrylic painting on canvas. I’ve loved doing this one!

Here’s how it was painted….

I’m painting Charlie, my brown spotted Bengal as a 20×16 canvas. I loved the original photo I took of him staring out of the window, it’s such an intense expression and it really shows off his beautiful eyes. I couldn’t resist painting him.

Stage 1

This is the sketch on the canvas and the first bits of the under painting. His whiskers have blue and violet as a base coat and I’ve started to fill out some of the darks and added some pinks to his ears, nose and mouth.

Stage 2

 I’m using Carmine Red and Jenkins Green to make a rich, dark colour for the background, applying that roughly with a large brush and letting the colours mix on the canvas.

I’m using Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber for his body and various oranges and golds along with the brown to emphasize his markings. I’ve worked on his nose in particular, developing that lovely pinky orange colour of his nose leather and the blue highlights in the fur just above his nose.

This is a close up view of stage 2 of the painting.

Stage 3

Working on his body now. I want a suggestion of spots but without too much detail as most of his body is in shadow. Fine tuning the fur on his face and starting those wonderful green eyes.

Stage 4

In this final photo of the series I’ve finished his eyes, added his whiskers, finished off his ears and added his gold collar as well as adding many small touches of pure colour to bring certain areas of the painting to life.

This close up of the painting shows the details of his eyes and the fur in the ears as well as some of the final touches like the blues and violets around his muzzle. I’ve really enjoyed painting Charlie.