Chester Cat Looks Up

7x5 watercolor on black Stonehenge 140 lb cold press wc paper done this past weekend.  Working on black paper was a first for me and this took 3 days off and on.  With this dark of a paper you have to build up light values, opposite from working on white paper.  Sketched with a white watercolor pencil and #2 pencil, I got the cat done.  Chester was perched on the back of my brown leather chaise.  White Daler Rowney watercolor used for white fur, and mixed blacks for his black fur.  Patterns on coral background were made using a paper stencil doily and Mint Julep and Periwinkle blue (American Journey).  Those two cool opaques were applied to far left background.  Whiskers were sketched first using white wc pencil.  No masking was used.  Highlights on the cat's black fur were thinned versions of palette greys.  A step by step demo can be seen on WetCanvas! in the Learning Zone on the Watercolor forum (www.wetcanvas.com)
COPYRIGHT 2019 Kay Smith