Our beloved cat Poussin De La Tour died on the 25th of April this year. He had been with us for over a decade. How Poussin came to be our cat is a lovely story. My wife is a singer for a Spanish music group. One evening, while rehearsing at the Students Center in the University of Puerto Rico, she saw a little kitty meowing close to the parking lot. She  summoned him. The kitten took an immediate liking to her. My wife petted him for awhile but she had to go to the rehearsal. Two hours later when she returned to her car the kitty was still there. She put the tambourine on the floor and told him that if he would step in, she would take him home. Well, he did and that’s how Poussin became our cat. His last name is in remembrance of the university tower and campanile.

She asked me to make a life size portrait of Poussin from a photo she took some years ago. It had to be very life like, she wanted. My first portrait painting of an animal.

The original photo and the outline drawing to scale.

I do the rough layout of the composition and put in place the general tones, using burnt sienna, cobalt green, mars black and titanium white. I want to have the correct look of the eyes early in the painting, so I do them in color, as well as the nose of the cat. I use cobalt green and cadmium yellow for the eyes and cadmium red mixed with white for the nose. The ears of a cat are very thin and a red purplish color takes care of showing that.  Notice that the cat is in a shadow area except for the front paw.

Now I begin to create details, tightening the drawing and evoking the individuality of the pet. I work on the texture of the hair and add some detail and realism to the floor. I add the whiskers and define the paws.

I corrected the size of the eyes and refined the shape of the head. At this point I realized I needed an unwordly background. The whole point of choosing this photograph was to express that, through love, Poussin could transcend his world of shadows into our lives, hence his front paw into the light.

Coming Forth Into Light – Acrylic on Canvas 18″ x 14″ by Ben Morales-Correa