You hear stories of bringing a new cat home and the introduction to the existing resident cats may be slow and difficult. Well, that was not the case with Luigi. The moment we brought Luigi home from the cat rescue, he won our hearts, including Baby's, our dainty little long hair cat. As if they were litter mates, they played well together immediately. No hissing, no fur flying. We had two other cats then but Luigi and Baby formed a bond. I jokingly called Baby as Luigi's BFF - best friends forever. It's been a year now since Luigi joined our family. Occasionally, I will not see either one of them and then, they would appear together. Well, they were probably just hanging out in their secret hiding place, like best friends do.
Lessons Learned and Hindsight - The first time I did a cat portrait, I actually painted her while she sat next to me. As if she was posing for me. That was difficult because she moved around quite a bit. This time I used photos of Luigi and Baby. Much easier. Especially true for tabby cats, their individual markings are their "facial features". And like people, cats' eyes are their windows to their little souls. So those are important in capturing who they are in a painting. Baby usually is puzzled and Luigi is a mischievous little chubby boy. I hope you see that in them.
