Like most people, I’ve been drawing ever since I began
I actually started acrylic painting about a year ago.
It started after I drew a shilotte of some one for a project – probably a poster – in class. I cant remember what the Silhouette was of or even what the project was for the matter. But anyway I was drawing this picture on our group work when a friend of mine asked me to do a painting for them.
I’d never really done a painting before and was tempted to decline, but knowing she had admired me all way through primary school, while I resented her, I felt bad and said yes.
I asked her what colour her bedroom is, and what she like me to paint for her to which she replied herself playing hockey. My heart sank. It was a great idea if only I could draw people. As back then I HATED people. No matter what I tried I could never get their form right or the face or facial features such as the nose and lips.
Not wanting to disappoint her though, I walked home that evening head in hand to find reference images on the internet. And soon realised it’d be much easier to paint a Shallotte of a hockey player than a portrait.
So that’s what I did. I painted a duck egg blue background to match her room and painted a shiloeete of a hockey player dribbling a ball.
And that’s what kickstarted it all because as I went to give it to her, another one of my friends asked me to paint her a painting of Puffins.
So I painted her a 20 x 20 canvas over the summer holiday and brought it back to her at school and ever since I paint her a new canvas for her birthday.
Such as my goat painting from 2018.
I also did another painting more recently for my Auntie and Uncles Christmas present, featuring their black lab as his eyes don’t come out in photos.
It took a long time to get the colours right though. As up until that point I had never painted an animal that dark before and hadn’t realised to get the shading and lighting right in the portrait I’d have to use a deep charcoal for the base colour instead of black.
One more painting I did this year was an expressive piece of an winged wolf. I did it over a day in the summer holiday and I’m actually really proud of this and think it’s one of my all-time favorite pieces.
Keep on crafting!
Handmade With Love: Catsith Crafts xx