How to paint a cat in acrylics | Painting realistic fur in acrylics

Hi everyone, in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to paint a grey cat in acrylics. Now as you can see from a photo in the corner of the finished painting, I did a bokeh background for this piece. Now I am actually going to have a separate video here on YouTube showing how I created that and that's going to be coming up very soon. Now when I begin working on the eyes my main priority is to really focus on capturing as much of that three-dimensional shape and the sphere look of the eye. Now in order to do this the position of the highlights and shadows is really important. In most cases there's going to be a shadow at the top section and that's where that eyelid area and the top section of fur on the eyebrow is casting that shadow on the very top edge of the eye. Now depending on the lighting in the reference photo there's also going to be some darker shading required on the lower and corner of the eye but of course this is going to be subjective depending on the reference photo we're working from. But most of the time there is going to be some kind of subtle shadow around the outer edge and this will help with that sphere shape of the eye that we're trying to capture. Now I want to try to simplify as much of the process as I can so I like to block in where my main highlights are and then I also want to be focusing on breaking up that layering process and simplifying that as much as I can. Now for me one of the ways that I do that is I break up the colour selection process from the layering of my values. Now what I mean by that is you can see that I applied a blue glaze but that was after I added my lighter layers on the eye. Breaking up these two steps here into individual processes makes any painting far easier to tackle. Now I have a video here on YouTube where I'm talking all about glazes and showing with various paintings how they can be used so if that's of interest I'll link that video in the description below. Now when working on the fur this was where the layering process becomes more structured. I personally like to make sure that I've got a good base foundation in place first before I start adding my details. So I really want to be making sure that I've got something that's more soft and blended to avoid those harsh start and stop points. Now the reason I like to work with a base layer like this is I feel that it brings more softness to the details that I'm adding on top. If I'm working from more of a harsh base layer I do feel that that shows through with the layers that I build up on top because the way that I like to layer I'm not covering up the layer underneath completely. You can see here that some of those darker greys on the base are still showing through when I'm coming back in with the details here. Now when painting realistic fur regardless of the colour or the texture I'm always looking to capture good contrast. Now this is something that I've briefly already mentioned when painting the eyes and it's exactly the same principle when painting fur. I'm coming in here and darkening some sections of this ready to start putting in my highlights on top but my biggest tip at this stage is we don't want to be jumping into our brightest highlights too soon. The lighter details that are sitting on the very top that we might notice first when we look at that reference photo ideally need to be left for those later layers. We want to be painting with what's closest to the skin and building up from there. We'll find usually that's going to maximise the depth and again we'll be able to capture more realism in the painting. Now along with building up a good contrast I'm also focusing on the brush technique. Now brush technique is something that I speak about in every single one of my tutorials and that is going to vary depending on the texture that we're painting. Now there are three things that I like to focus on regarding brush technique and that is the fur direction, the fur length and fur thickness. Now depending on the brush that we're using the way that we hold the brush, move the brush, the amount of pressure that's applied, how much paint we've loaded on that brush is going to give us a range of brush strokes. Now the fur direction is never random, it will always follow the underlying bone and muscular structure. So as I start to curve the brush strokes here around the eye you can see that I'm building up more of that structure of the eye socket. The way that the fur curves over then it starts to go up towards the top edge of the canvas in between the eyes. This is giving the impression of the skull shape and it's obviously therefore very unique to that one animal. You could have the same breed of cat, dog, horse, whatever it may be but each animal's structure is going to be different so that fur direction will shift from one animal to the next. Now when aiming for a high level of realism it's something here that I really do like to focus on. Even when painting the edges here that overlap the background I'm making sure that my brush strokes are varied. There's never going to be one same brush direction from start to finish, especially when the fur starts to get a little longer. Now as the fur on the edges of the face and the body were out of focus I'm having to use a different set of techniques. I'm focusing more on my softening and blending methods here in order to make sure that I've captured this softness and that blurry effect. Now because of how fast acrylics dry this is one of the techniques that can be far harder, much more trickier to get right. So because all of my real-time tutorials are recorded with a voiceover while I'm painting I'm able to explain all of these techniques and all of the processes in the moment. This really does make the real-time tutorials very step-by-step, even for something as complex as this. So if any of my real-time tutorials are of interest I'll link all of the information to those in the description below. Now as I continue to paint more of the face this is where the length of my brush strokes and the length of the fur becomes more varied. So the fur in between the eyes here it needs to be much shorter than the fur that I've painted so far. If I had my brush strokes that looked the same from start to finish with one area to the next I'm going to end up with a painting that's far flatter. So the fur length is just as important as any other aspect. Now one other consideration is the thickness of the brush strokes. Now this is determined by a couple of different factors, one of which is how much pressure we apply to the brush. So if we add more pressure to that brush regardless of the brush that we're using then that's going to end up creating a far thicker brush stroke compared to one if we use lighter pressure. Now this is something that we do need to vary depending on the texture of the fur that we're painting. If you're looking to have thinner lines then the less pressure is what we need to be using. Thicker lines or more clumped fur we need to be using a little bit more pressure. Now the way that that brush is going to be used of course is going to be very unique to each individual project but you can use a round brush to create a liner brush detail if you're using less pressure and again with a rigger or a liner brush if you use more pressure you're going to end up with a thicker brush stroke that potentially could look like a round brush. So the way that we use these brushes is going to influence what that brush stroke looks like. Now another consideration which affects how thick the brush strokes are is the consistency of the paint, how much paint versus water and also how much of that mixture we've got on our brush. Now an example of this is if we've got a mixture that doesn't have enough water so it's a little bit too thick we might feel like we need to have more pressure on the brush in order to get that brush stroke to be created. The issue that then happens is that excessive pressure creates a thicker line and then that line can often end up having start and stop points because the mixture is not thin enough in order to leave the bristles. So getting that balance just right of how much water needs to be used is going to depend on the brush that we're using. For example a liner or a rigger brush with the longer bristles needs to have a bit more of a thinner mixture in order to get the best results whereas you might not need as much of that water when using a filbert brush if your brush strokes need to be shorter. So this is something that I really do focus the real-time tutorials on because I think this is something that can be quite frustrating when working with any paint medium. Getting the balance just right of the consistency and how much paint we need to have on the brush to start with can make the entire painting process much easier. Now when I worked on the ears this is again where I had to focus on adjusting my brush technique. So on the left hand side the ear was in focus there was lots of lovely detail whereas on the right ear here I'm having to use more of my softening and blending techniques because this ear was out of focus. Now when I was newer to acrylics if there was any reference photos where the fur on the edges that overlapped the background was out of focus I would have stayed away from working from those images. Now looking back at it now that's a real shame because really pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone is how we evolve, it's how we develop our painting skills. Now one thing that I did learn is I had to simplify the process as much as I could and take that stress away of potentially feeling like I was going to ruin my painting. Now one way that I have done that is to always make sure that if I've created a blended effect that I like it might just be two or three brush strokes that I've softened but I'm really happy with how that turned out I will always make sure that I dry it before I start blending the next section. This can make the painting process a little bit longer but it is so worthwhile because if we've dried that area that we like then we know that we can't then ruin it by over blending with fur that we put on top. So that would be one of my biggest tips if you're newer to blend in any sections of fur like that take that pressure off by making sure that we dry the areas that we like. Once they're dry they're established they're in and we can't ruin them but I want to be making sure here that I've just taken that pressure off because that feeling is what can make us feel really overwhelmed and we can start to second guess the decisions that we make which normally we'd be very confident in. So just making that process as easy as possible can have a real positive effect for the entire painting. Now as I continue to work on the rest of the face the section of the fur around the nose here is really important regarding the length of the brushstrokes so the fur directly above the nose here it's so short that in some cases only little dots might be required. We don't actually have to drag that brush across the canvas in some situations. Now if I was to make my brush strokes here the same length as the fur on the side of the face then this area is going to look very fluffy which for some animals would be okay but for this I really want to be making sure that I'm shortening them and getting the range of those brushstrokes right. I'm still focusing on building up my layers gradually I'm not jumping into my brightest highlights but I'm wanting to make sure here that I've captured the brush technique and the variation as much as I can. Now another aspect of this is the size of the painting that you're working on. This was fairly small, this was an 8 by 10. It's still enough to capture a lot of detail and a very high level of realism but if you're looking to capture even finer details then I'd recommend to work on something larger. You're going to have more space to add more brushstrokes and to really refine more of those finer lines. Now the very last part of this was working on the chin and then the fur on the neck. One of the things I wanted to capture here is how soft the white fur looked. Now in order to do that I'm going to again focus on getting a blended soft base layer. Now when I work with my acrylics if I have to I will work with three or four layers for my base. You know this looks quite messy still so I'm going to come back in here with another layer to help create more softness. When you're working with acrylics if you have added a little bit too much water or you're using colours that are naturally more transparent then you are still going to have some of that background colour showing through. Now I personally don't like to work with building my details on top if that has happened. I would always like to spend another couple of minutes adding another layer to cover up that background colour completely. Now once I'd created a base layer that I liked, it had the softness that I wanted, I've now again simplified the process as much as I can. So I wanted to just focus now on the outer edges and getting that soft blended look. Once I'd got that outer focus effect that I was trying to capture here that's when I could work on the detailing for the rest of the painting. By making sure that I'm only working on one task at a time it's going to stop me from feeling overwhelmed. Now this is personally why I like to just work on smaller sections. I don't like to block the entire base layer of all of the subject in then do my next layer and the next layer and so on. Now that doesn't mean that that can't be a way of working, if that works for you that is absolutely fine but I know that I personally start to feel like I'm rushing through my layers when I do that. Now because the amount of layers that I'm adding here is really important to me and how I like to build up the depth, if I feel like I'm skipping out on layers then I know that the painting is not going to be as realistic as what I could potentially achieve. Now another thing as well is if I'm looking at my reference photo and I feel like I'm hesitating I'm staring at that reference photo not quite sure where I should be that's another sign that the area I'm trying to work on is probably a little bit too big. So if that happens when you're painting it might just be worth scaling it down a little bit just focus in on one or two square inches get that 80-90% done and then move on to the next bit. But of course as I say this is all individual to each artist there's no right or wrong way of working. Now the very last element that I like to add to my paintings are the whiskers. Now when painting long fine lines like this in some cases it's easier to turn your canvas around so that you can continue to move your hand towards you rather than pulling it away or twisting your hand at an odd angle. So you're going to see in a moment that I will end up doing that and it is something that can make a big difference when painting these kinds of whiskers. So I do hope that the tips and techniques that I've shared in this video have been useful if they were I'd be very grateful if you could give it a like and a thumbs up it makes a huge difference to my channel. I also upload a couple of videos to YouTube every week so if you would like to get notified of that content then don't forget to hit the subscribe and the bell button. If you would like to paint along to the real-time tutorial of this cat or any of my other step-by-step lessons then I'll link all of the information to those in the description below. If you do have any art related questions feel free to pop them in the comments because I'm more than happy to help if I can and I'm going to be uploading another video next week but as always thank you so much for watching.