I’ve been trying to get better at drawing and painting animals with some accuracy - specifically, I set myself a course of drawing and painting a series of cats in classes by different teachers to really get my techniques down, taking the best parts of different approaches and mixing and matching.

I started this painting by doing a couple of study sketches and doing swatches of the paints I planned to use - my final result was a bit bluer and browner than the example, partially because I that’s what I saw in the reference image and video but also because I had slightly different paints (I am movings soon and, while my pallet seems to be the only thing I possess that is still expanding, I am trying to get some paints to pull double duty). I swapped out Grey Titanium and Lapiz Lazuli for Kyrite and Buff Titanium - the Kyrite formed the grey in the ears and face when it mixed with the Sepia, and the Buff Titanium added light tones to the body. I’m also interested in line, so I was bold with the masking fluid in the whiskers and eyebrows, and loved spattering some on the body (I’d never have thought of it, but I’ll use it again).

I followed the example for the first layer and did the face, but departed when I added a second layer to the body - I think this was because I wanted bolder lines to define the profile of the legs and belly. I also added a second and third player to the ears and neck to add cross-contour lines - I think this instinct comes from the amount of time I have spent learning how to layer graphite and charcoal (quite a bit). The only slight issue with this was that I had added flicks to the edges in the first layer and couldn’t go over them again - the effect added some texture, so it still works, but I might wait to add flicks until the final layer in the next piece.

My studying more realistic drawing definitely paid off in studying the shadows in the eye, which I tried to capture, and getting the proportions of the face down - I showed this to a friend who is a Spanish Vet and he said ‘Oh, a beautiful Lynx’ without me telling him, so I feel I can sign off on this portrait with a workmanlike ‘job well done’.

In the future, I am planning to take the Snow Leopard and Tiger classes (but I get easily distracted by other ideas, so don’t hold your breath), but I’ll also be returning to Lynxes in paint, graphite, and charcoal. I am re-reading Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights trilogy, where the characters’ souls are given an external, animal manifestation. When my wife and I were watching the video clip, I looked at the male Lynx with his elegant pose, vicious jaws and intelligent eyes, turned to my wife and said ‘Yup, that’s you.’ (I later realised that I would be a Hawksbill Sea-Turtle, which, given that I live as far from the sea as it’s possible to be, prompted a long discussion with my therapist). I worked on this painting while my wife was out for the evening, and then left it propped up on my desk when I went out the next day. When I got home, she told me that she had spent some real time admiring the painting, in which the Kyanite glitters at the right angle and that she wants me to frame it for her. Now, she has been impressed by my paintings and drawings before and happy for my improvement, but this is the first painting that she has actually wanted to keep, which is a big personal milestone! 

So thank you for this class, and I’ll take more soon.