Sky light, 12 x 18, Wallis

During some hot, humid weather last week, I opted to stay in and work on a new portrait of Charlie. I got a photo of him sitting in the front hall with light from the sky light casting his shadow on a red Turkish kilim. A main challenge was the composition, given his shadow moving off to the left and his tail to the right. So I positioned him pretty centrally to make it all fit. I didn't want his face to be too far to the left. The 12 x 18 format worked perfectly. The next challenge was to simplify the background, leaving out the staircase. I just brushed in various green Giraults, with some added rose color and blue greens and it worked nicely. The biggest problem was the rug. I wanted to simplify it, but my first attempts didn't work at all. I finally had to draw in a pattern (simpler than the actual rug) and indicate where it was in light and shadow through value and temperature changes. Of course, the beauty of the picture is the reflected pink light on his white fur.  Charlie is a beautiful cat and I feel fortunate to have such a lovely model!