Carousel Part 16-So Close to Completing the Folk Art Cat-Photo

I had really hoped to have a completed folk art cat to show you today, but it is not yet finished.  In a case of self-inflicted time loss, I have had very little time to work in the studio (a.k.a. the spare bedroom).  I had signed up for a couple of continuing education classes.  The reading and writing requirements seemed minimal.  Then the instructor doubled the writing requirement and added an assignment for a collaborative project and an oral presentation.  This is on top of adding nearly 500 pages of reading material.  So a portion of two other people's grades now depend on my stepping up to the plate and doing my part in the collaboration and presentation.  Lucky for them I'm a good team player, because I took the classes for personal interest rather than the continuing education credits.  Anyway, all this has taken a lot of time away from my art and will continue to do so for another week. 

Although I am feeling pressed for time at the moment, I know that once the class is completed I will be returning to the studio with renewed energy for having turned my focus elsewhere for a couple of weeks. Making art is a wonderful way to spend your time, but working alone most of the time can make you feel isolated.  I encourage all artists to take some time to engage themselves mentally and physically.

The cat is mostly painted.  I still need to paint the face and saddle.  I wanted the cat to look like an orange tabby but had a lot of trouble coming up with the color mixture.  My first and second attempts were too orange.  (One of them could only be described as neon.)  This particular brand of acrylic orange dried lighter and brighter than expected.  So I went back and base coated the cat in a tan color thinking that I would just add the burnt umber stripes of paint and make the cat look like a campy ring tailed cat.  Then I mixed up a batch of orange to add some accents.  It really looked like the color I was trying to achieve to begin with so I started to paint over the stripes.  The paint was too translucent, and the stripes showed through, so I painted around the stripes and touched them up afterwards.  That took quite a bit of time.  When I have time, I will get to work on the face.  I don't know that the folk art cat will be completed by my blog post on Wednesday, but I believe that it will be complete by Sunday.