Black Cats and White Cats - Original Oil Paintings by Diane Irvine Armitage

Here are two of three portrait commissions that I have done for Roxane.  Both paintings are very large - 18 x 36 inches!  One is of her black cat Gin and the other of her white cat Sel (which means Salt in French).  I painted these paintings in several stages.  First with an underpainting where I put in a nice reddish brown in the background area so it could peek through in the finished painting.  These paintings were a real pleasure to paint!

 Finished paintings on my drying shelf in the studio.

 

 The painting of Gin in progress ...

 

 And the final painting of Gin ...

 The painting of Sel in progress ...

 Underpainting, then second session ...

 And then the final painting of Sel.

The Chocolate Cat Gaia - A Speed Painting Video by Diane Irvine Armitage

This is the second portrait I have painted of the Chocolate Cat Gaia.  Such a fun face to paint!  This tuxedo cat oozes personality :-)  This painting is 11 x 14 inches.

I put together a speed painting video of the painting session and you can see it HERE.

Lisa's Black Cats Lucy and Leo - Custom Cat Oil Paintings by Diane Irvine Armitage

My latest custom black cat portraits are Lisa's lovely cats Leo and Lucy.  Lisa says that Leo is not a small cat and looks like a mini black panther and that Lisa is part Siamese and has a gorgeous Siamese face with lovely pale green eyes.  I painted two sets of paintings for Lisa.  The first is a classic portrait style.

 Leo

 Lucy

The next pair of paintings are of Leo and Lucy laying down, with Leo playing with his favorite feather toy and Lucy looking adorable on Lisa's lap.

 Leo

 Lucy

Such a pleasure to paint such beautiful black cats!

Custom Black Cat Portrait Original Oil Painting by Diane Irvine Armitage

Today's black cat portrait is Jane's adorable Pepsi.  I have been wanting to paint this cute face since I saw Pepsi's photo on my Facebook page.  If you would like a custom 8 x 10 inch portrait of your black cat, just click on the Email Me button on the right on my blog!

Gaia the Cat with Catitude! and Two Paintings of Lucky - Cat Portraits by Diane Irvine Armitage

I have been working away on a series of custom cat portraits for some really nice people.  Today's painting is of Melissa's Gaia.  This is a cat with serious catitude!!  I absolutely loved painting this cutie - what a face!!  I found that this painting came out more in the style of the Marmalade painting, I think mostly because it was not painted alla prima (all at once).  The first session was getting the canvas covered with the right colors and values and then I blended everything to get really soft transitions.  The second session was putting in the mid-tones and highlights and doing all the fun sketchy brushwork.  Another thing I like about letting the underpainting dry is being able to go in on the background and put one color over another.  This background started out dark and then I put the golden tones over that, leaving a little of the dark to show through here and there.  Anyway, I really like this one :-)

 As you can see, Gaia is a real character!!  I understand that she has a Twitter following :-)

 

Another cat I painted recently is Carla's Lucky.  Lucky was an adorable black cat that, sadly, recently passed away.  Carla had me paint two portraits of Lucky as a surprise present for her husband.  I loved trying to capture Lucky's sweet personality!

 

More black cat portraits are on the way!!

Cleopatra - Black Cat Commissed Oil Painting by Diane Irvine Armitage

The lovely Cleopatra is the model for today's black cat painting.  I just love the look in her eyes!  This pose reminds me of a much sketchier painting I did about a year ago.

 

Custom Cat Portrait Oil Painting by Diane Irvine Armitage

A few of my latest black cat portrait commissions.  I have a big long list of portraits to do!  So wonderful :-)

First there is Roberta's Felix.  A very dapper black kitty!  I really liked the pose on this one and the shape of the eyes - very fun to paint.

  Next there is Danielle's dashing cat Dastan.  A romantic gentleman-type kitty!