Sucker for Punishment! Cat Portrait

 I've been asked to paint a portrait of a recently deceased cat and the following (& a couple more that are similar to these) are the only known photos of him.  The first and last photos are the best, of course, but none are really great references.  The first photo is of the cat when he was younger and the rest are from the last years of the life of the cat.  And these are all at the size the client emailed to me.  When I asked for larger resolution photos, I got enlarged versions (not higher resolution) of the ones sent - very pixelated and worse than the originals. 

I guess I'm a sucker since I said I'd TRY to do this portrait.  This is a favorite client and she's commissioning it for a friend of hers who just lost this cat.  So many people think an artist can look at bad reference photos and immediately paint a superior portrait. Fortunately, this client is not like that but she would still like a miracle, of course. 

To all others who give me reference photos like these I'd like to ask them to drive down to the corner store and get me a soft drink - oh, and by the way, have them wear a blindfold.  Then , if they protest, I'd say, "Oh, don't worry, you've driven there hundreds of times and I know you can do it! and please can you be back in about 10 minutes?"

To me, that's much the same expectation many people have of a pet portrait artist.   Just because we've painted a lot of cats or dogs or other animals in our life doesn't mean that we automatically know what your pet looks like nor can we paint it in a short amount of time.  Animals are like people and one ginger cat does not look like another one!

Fortunately, I'm to paint the younger version of the cat before he got his ear mangled. I don't think I could paint that ear and have it look right - there's just not a photo that shows it clearly enough to paint accurately. 

I know, I know, I could have refused to even consider this commission but hey, I'm a sucker!