Black Tuesday - the Painting that Wouldn't Die

Too bad it's not Friday, because Black Tuesday sounds a little weird for the title to this painting.  I should call it the Painting That Wouldn't Die because I attempted this one three times!  First I painted it and I didn't like the range of values - too many higher values.  Then I narrowed the value range but the painting ended up all purple and blue - UGLY.  So then I figured it was just a "wiper" and I wiped most of it off with turpentine - all except the eyes because I really liked those.  Well, after having those eyes watch me for a week, this morning I thought I would have another go at painting this black cat.  I stuck with a mostly really dark black (which of course is not black out of the tube but a mix of alizarin crimson, viridian and indigo), with just the tiniest bits of grey to indicate a few features.  So it is all eyes and whiskers on this one, and I finally really like how it came out.
Here is the final version ...  I'm calling it Black Tuesday.

 This was the original attempt ...

 And the attempted correction ...

 The "wiper" with the haunting eyes ...

 The photograph all this madness grew out of ...

 And once more, Black Tuesday.

If at first you don't succeed, keep painting until you go crazy!!

Sunshine

Another black cat in my series of paintings of cats from Petfinder.  This kitty is named Sunshine.  No, not Midnight or Shadow but a bright, happy name - Sunshine!  I enjoyed working with the dark blues to get the mid-tones and the lighter blues for the lighter tones.  Until I varnish this, the darkest darks, which are the black gesso showing through, just don't photograph nice and dark.  But then there's no taking a picture once it is varnished because of the shine off the varnish.  So what's a poor girl to do?  : - )  So just use your imagination and picture those flat darks all deep black and shiny!

This painting is available here at my Daily Paintworks Gallery page.  Oh and my painting from yesterday of the extreme closeup black cat is featured on Daily Paintworks Facebook page as one of their paintings of the day!  Fun!