Cats are a favorite subject matter to paint. I used a photo taken of our two sisters, Siobhan and Keiko. I loved painting the contrast of the calico with the mixed tabby and white markings. Pets are notorious for not keeping still for a photograph. I got lucky and took numerous pictures of these sisters tucked into their pet bed before they moved.

I always do a series of sketches using a dark soft pencil as Ebony or 6B before stretching my watercolor paper and transferring the sketch. To achieve the softness of their fur, I painted on damp paper while blending the colors. Grays were mixed using a cobalt and ultramarine blue with cadmium orange.  The design worked well and I captured their typical expressions and unique markings.