Black Cat at Halloween

And as we approach Halloween, here comes another themed painting!  A black cat this time. She’s surrounded by pumpkins too!  Today, I decided to have a go at negative space art by developing the background into the subject.  What fun it’ll be creating a black cat surrounded by some bright orange!

Background

First I secured some masking tape on the edges of my A4 sheet of Canson’s A4 Mixed Media paper.  A few layers of black gesso was then applied with a short wide brush, ensuring a full even coverage.  Once dry after half hour of so, I went about pressing some bubble wrap imprints with metallic black acrylic paint.  And time to draw my cat now!  I sketched with white chalk pencil so it’s easier to correct mistakes.

Negative Space

The point of this session is to create a silhouette of our cat by painting AROUND it rather than filling it in.  First I wanted to give some texture and hence glued on some paper napkins depicting images of pumpkins.  And now time to pile the paint on top!  I opted for a combination, not blend, of opaque titanium white and fluorescent orange (both my ARA).  See how some of the patterns from the layer beneath show through!

Finishing Off

However, I was a bit disappointed that the pumpkins were not as visible as expected.  So how about introducing more of those paper napkins on top? If I don’t like it, I can always paint over it, right? A few were carefully cut out and applied with acrylic medium.  Now we’re talking !  I didn’t want to overwhelm the area though so just three was enough.  To fill in the empty spaces, I merely incorporated some bubble wrap imprints with light gold Acryla gouache.  And wow!

Now that’s what I call combining kawaii with spooky!  I had the idea of negative space painting in mind when creating this piece, and I’m pleased it turned out quite well.  The neon orange worked very well with the black, making the cat pop out from such a vivid color.  I’m also glad I kept the cat as a silhouette rather than include features as it adds to the mystery.  A very Halloween theme indeed!