Featured Artwork: Portrait of Marley and Boo
This is Wednesday’s “Featured Artwork” post on Thursday. I had a new portrait (2025) to share but somehow I lost the story and knew I wasn’t remembering all the details so had to contact the person who commissioned me. In the meantime I’ve been going through older portraits that I’ve never shared on the internet and ones I shared a long time ago, like this one of Marley and Boo.
These two very large black cats were really a challenge partly because black fur is a challenge, and while I’d painted black cats before 1999 I had nowhere near the visual information I have today after so many have moved through my household. And even though Marley and Boo may look alike, black fur color is really all they have in common. Their two purr-sonalities were really quite different, so designing a setting with the two wasn’t going to be a cuddlefest for sure.
About Marley and Boo
Both felines were adopted from shelters. Their person volunteered for a shelter and saw many adult cats who went without homes and had always loved black cats. She adopted Boo first, a gentle, quiet kitty, happy and affectionate but a little on the timid side. It seemed a buddy for Boo might be a good thing to bring him out of his shell.
Marley had been returned for being a little too physical in an adoptive home and may have been considered dangerous, which might have been just because he’s a “scary black cat.” He was very physical, but not at all dangerous, just big and outgoing. He seemed to be perfectly happy as I crawled around on the floor after him trying to get a good close-up of his face and fur, and now to think of it he made me think of Giuseppe.
Designing the portrait
Unfortunately, Marley was not a good match for Boo who remained timid while Marley remained pretty physical so most of the time they stayed apart. So, in designing the portrait, we knew we couldn’t position them cuddling or even side by side if we wanted to be true to who they were, and not who we wanted them to be. I looked over my photos of them and the ones their person gave me and found what seemed to be typical poses and arranged them with a little space in between. But the composition was a little bit unbalanced with Marley sitting tall and Boo crouching on his paws.
The background was just an imaginary space to create interest, and was the first time I did the “wrinkled cloth” texture, which in a large portrait I found far more interesting than just a color in the background. We chose a neutral color where they would contrast well, and I used the idea of a little more light just behind them to create an interesting composition and help draw the eye to the center while the light and modeled shading in that upper right area balanced the composition.
This is one of the portraits where I only have a 4” x 6” photo to scan for the image and when I pull out detail images they are a little too blurry so no detail images on this portrait.
Mother’s and Father’s Day Commissioned Portrait Special
I’m offering 25% off the purchase of a portrait certificate or a commissioned portrait that is booked between now and June 30, 2026, whether it’s for mother, father, grandparents or any of those special persons who encouraged your love of animals, even for yourself. Use the coupon code MOTHERSFATHERSDAY25 when you purchase a portrait gift certificate, which is how I book commissioned portraits. Read more here.
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.
Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals
Fine Art • Photography • Gifts • Greeting Cards • Books • Commissioned Portraits & Artwork
Great Rescues Day Book:
Portraits, Rescue Stories, Holidays and Events, Essential Feline Information, All in One Book
Each month features one of my commissioned portraits of a feline or felines and their rescue story along with a kitty quote on the left page, and on the right page the month name with enough lines for all possible dates, with standard holidays and animal-themed observances and events. Great Rescues also includes a mini cat-care book illustrated with my drawings including information on finding strays or orphaned kittens, adopting for the first time or caring for a geriatric cat, a list of household toxins and toxic plants, or helping stray and feral cats and beginning with TNR.
Each book includes also 10 sheets of my “22 Cats” decorative notepaper with a collage of all the portraits in black and white so you can make your own notes or write special notes to friends.
The portraits in this book, collected as a series, won both a Certificate of Excellence and a Muse Medallion in the 2011 Cat Writers’ Association Annual Communication Contest, as well as the 22 Cats Notepaper mentioned below.
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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© 2009-2025 | 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!
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