Commissioned Portrait: Four Kitties Watching Mom
These four rescued kitties are supervising their mom working out in the yard! From the left they are Gizmo, Twinkie, Stewart and Elsie, four lucky kitties rescued by people who were working on TNR and found homes for the friendly kitties. The woman’s husband had purchased a gift certificate so that she could choose the portrait she wanted, and she had the idea and lots of photos when I went to visit. Among other ideas, she had a photo from a previous year in which Twinkie and Stewart really were watching her out that window. The little windowbox was full of red tuberous begonias and the casements were open, kitties were enjoying the sun.
I knew this would be beautiful. Cats and flowers, and looking out a window, what could be better?
Initially, I was to add Gizmo, the third cat in the household then, so I took a few more photos of the cats and of the window with red dahlias that spring so I’d have enough to work with. One thing about cats on the inside of the window is that the screen darkens things and sometimes creates a pattern, the sun sometimes flashes on the screen, and the lights and darks need to be evened out. The window positions just weren’t nice in the initial composite, and worked better in the second. But there was too much window and not enough cats and flowers, so I cropped it down to just the important parts. The dahlias were a little skimpy since I’d taken the photo in May. But still we had some work to do before we had a composition we liked.
But then another thing happened. These people were avid golfers, and the golf course they used had a number of kitties running around. That’s where they’d been busy TNRing the kitties, and finding homes for the friendly ones. Gizmo, Twinkie and Stewart had come from there. When I had visited her she had mentioned a young cat, really an older kitten, who was very friendly and who she was considering adding to her feline household. Elsie joined the household and that balanced the composition with two cats in each of the windows. I solved the flower problem by making them grow and fill the bottom of the image to over flowing, with lots of color, and cropped it down to just enough window, and lots of kitties.
It’s one of the things I love about what I do: meeting generous people who rescue cats, and it’s a real bonus when they love flowers and growing things, and art.
Read about other current Commissioned Portraits and Featured Artwork
I also feature artwork which has not been commissioned, especially my paintings of my own cats. If you’d like to read more about artwork as I develop it, about my current portraits and art assignments and even historic portraits and paintings, I feature commissioned portrait or other piece of artwork on Wednesday. Choose the categories featured artwork.
Take a look at other portraits and read other stories
Read articles on The Creative Cat featuring current and past commissioned portraits.
Read about how I create commissioned portraits.
Commissioned Cat Portraits | Commissioned Dog Portraits | Portraits of My Cats |
Visit my website to see portraits of my cats, commissioned cats, commissioned dogs, people and a demonstration of how I put a portrait together from photos.
Download a Brochure
My brochure is an 8.5″ x 11″ two-page full-color PDF that half-folds when it’s all printed out, showing examples of portraits with an explanation of my process and basic costs.
Purchase a Gift Certificate
I offer gift certificates for portraits in any denomination beginning at $50.00, which is the basic cost of a small monochromatic portrait.
The certificate itself is 8.5″ x 11″ and features a collage of portrait images with the recipient’s and giver’s names, printed on parchment cover stock. The whole thing is packaged in a pocket folder and includes a brochure, a letter from me to the recipient and several business cards.The certificate package can be easily mailed or wrapped as a gift and shipped directly to your recipient.
I can also make it downloadable if you’re in a hurry.
Certificates are good for up to one year after issue.
You can purchase gift certificates here or from Portraits of Animals if you are also purchasing other animal-inspired merchandise.
I prefer to look over the work and price the portrait according to how much work will go into it, as described above, but you can either set a budget or get started by purchasing a certificate for yourself or as a gift.
How to Order
- “Certificate A” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 black and white or monochromatic portrait with one subject.
- “Certificate B” is for a minimum-size 8 x 10 color portrait with one subject.
- Choose “A” or “B” depending on whether your portrait is black and white or color.
- If your portrait will be larger or have more subjects, add $50 or $100 or more to your certificate value with the drop-down below.
CERTIFICATE A $50.00
- Size: 8 x 10
- Subjects: One
- Color: black and white media such as charcoal, pencil, ink, or monochromatic media such as one color of pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
- Background or objects: none but shading or colored paper
CERTIFICATE B $100.00
- Size: 8 x 10
- Subjects: One
- Color: full color media such as pastel, watercolor, colored pencil, etc.
- Background or objects: none but a color or colored paper
Add to your certificate purchase
You can use the second drop down to add $50.00 or $100.00. For amounts over this we’d probably have a conversation and I can set up a custom certificate for your purchase.
You only need to enter an address if it is different from the address I’ll receive when you order. These are often surprise gifts and need to be shipped away from the home address to make sure they are a surprise.
Art and Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals
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Give the gift of art, and a portrait of a beloved pet
Is there an animal lover on your list who has every cat or dog-themed t-shirt and handbag, and even their pets have every toy they can use for the rest of their natural lives? Consider a Commissioned Portrait Gift Certificate. Whether it’s for someone else or yourself, a custom portrait is different from a professional photograph because we can create the scene that you remember even if you never had the chance to photograph it. Your household of animal companions can be grouped in a natural setting even if their lives didn’t overlap. Purchase a certificate here or on Portraits of Animals.
Copyright
All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
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© 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski
Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
nice job on this one B !♥☺
Thanks so much, Tabbies! I was so excited to do this one I was practically drooling.