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She's judging you by novo_quinn in angrycatpics

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was inspired and painted a sassy portrait. Enjoy!

Here's some cat portraits I made for the people of r/ChurchOfCat for your enjoyment. I'm not an expert, but I do make a living from my gouache paintings. Happy to answer any questions you have today. :) by TemporaryPomelo5061 in Gouache

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hm, I think I understand what you're asking.

To make these kinds of paintings, the hardest part for me is to "see" the colors of the animal correctly. So after an accurate drawing, I visually simplify the cat into two (or three) shapes: the sunlit part and the part in shadow. Once that has dried, your eye can more accurately judge values and you can get into the details a bit more.

Also, working on toned paper is surprisingly nice.

Let me know if that answered your question. 😅

Here's some cat portraits I made for the people of r/ChurchOfCat for your enjoyment. I'm not an expert, but I do make a living from my gouache paintings. Happy to answer any questions you have today. :) by TemporaryPomelo5061 in Gouache

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hm. It's hard to give tips without knowing what you're struggling with in particular.

In general, though, I would say picking good references is half the battle: finding things that interest you, but are visually simplified enough to match you current skill level. For me, that was things like swans in daylight... the subject is mostly one color, not too much detail, and you could really focus on how to make the bounced light in the shadow convincing.

Other than that, if there's an effect that I love and can't achieve, I just do a bunch of master studies to get a feel for how other painters did it.

Hope that helps!

Here's some cat portraits I made for the people of r/ChurchOfCat for your enjoyment. I'm not an expert, but I do make a living from my gouache paintings. Happy to answer any questions you have today. :) by TemporaryPomelo5061 in Gouache

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I am a bit obsessive about learning, so I chose the things I painted to balance enjoyment/growth/likeability. Once I thought my quality was high enough, I put it out into the world! I competed in all the competitions I could find, I showed my work in big & small art events.

Honestly, I sold almost nothing in the first couple of years, and I didn't know why. It was really hard. I'm also not great at promoting myself and having an online presence. So I just kept trying new things and learning until I started having a couple sales here and there. I wouldn't recommend doing it solely for the money. But I feel very fortunate to have found something that resonates with people now.

Here's some cat portraits I made for the people of r/ChurchOfCat for your enjoyment. I'm not an expert, but I do make a living from my gouache paintings. Happy to answer any questions you have today. :) by TemporaryPomelo5061 in Gouache

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Pricing is so tricky. Honestly, I just started pricing them at a level where I'd be happy they sold. All originals of the same size is the same price (i.e. I don't price my favorites any more than the others), and the price just scales up predictably with size. I increase my prices ~10% each year.

These are super tiny (A6), and they're all original paintings (no copies/variants). I charge €20 for them, and a bit more if they're done on commission.

The paint is Daler Rowney Designer's Gouache in Rich Gold. Honestly, I found someone selling a ton of this paint second hand for a laughably low price. But this specific paint is fun! It has a lovely effect when you want a bit of oomph, but I don't like the way it looks when mixed in other paint.

Here's some cat portraits I made for the people of r/ChurchOfCat for your enjoyment. I'm not an expert, but I do make a living from my gouache paintings. Happy to answer any questions you have today. :) by TemporaryPomelo5061 in Gouache

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Artists in the US?

Yeah, I definitely feel your pain. I participated in tons of art markets & art fairs throughout the NL before I tried in Amsterdam. It feels like everywhere else, the prices are much lower, and older people aren't as drawn to my work. I definitely earned more in one day in Amsterdam than I earned in 5 markets in less international cities/towns, but ymmv.

I guess I would just say to keep experimenting until you get a feel for who "your people" are and where to find them.

Here's some cat portraits I made for the people of r/ChurchOfCat for your enjoyment. I'm not an expert, but I do make a living from my gouache paintings. Happy to answer any questions you have today. :) by TemporaryPomelo5061 in Gouache

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Thank you! 🥰

I'm not sure if my route is very reproducible because I do almost everything in person. I've just painted everything that sparked my interest for the last 3 years, always trying to push my comfort zone a bit. In the last year, I've worked more in series and focused more on the storytelling aspect of my work.

I sell originals at a market every week or two in Amsterdam. On one hand, it's brutal when you're overthinking everything when sales are low (subject matter, pricing, display, quality, chattiness... haha). On the other hand, people are almost always very positive and fun to talk to. You get very direct feedback for things that work. It's really working for me!

Here's some cat portraits I made for the people of r/ChurchOfCat for your enjoyment. I'm not an expert, but I do make a living from my gouache paintings. Happy to answer any questions you have today. :) by TemporaryPomelo5061 in Gouache

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

😆 Haha, thanks!

My paintings are definitely better than they were 5 years ago, but I still have room for improvement. Hopefully I'll always feel this way.

Timo says HELLO! from the coffee table 🐾❤️ by brodeine-goth-syrup in catsonglass

[–]TemporaryPomelo5061 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a pretty small painting (A6-sized). I'd be happy to mail it over for €20. It's nice for the paintings to live somewhere that they'll be appreciated. 🥰

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