Skip the Bobcat Sketch
Preliminary sketch of Skip the Bobcat from a photo by Lisa Polo, with permission. 8" x 10" in Carb-Othello pastel pencils on tan Aquabee Bogus Recycled Rough paper.
I might choose a different reference or layout. I put a different reference up as my wallpaper but this one's a possibility. The final painting will be raffled on Facebook on an Event Page for "Skip Portrait Benefit Raffle." You get one raffle number for each $10 donated to Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, FL where the real Skip lives. Once the final painting is completed and dried (as I think I'll be doing him in oils on a cradled Ampersand Gessobord), the winning number will be decided by my cat, probably by letting him swat a couple of ten sided dungeon dice around. If there's more than three digits, he can play with three of them.
The hardest part of shipping Lisa Polo's cats to her is done. Today I cut the foam board into panels that exactly fit the Priority Mail box and got out the glassine sheets. Tomorrow I'll carefully and lovingly tape each cat painting to a board with a glassine cover, tape the stack together solidly and stuff it in the box with enough recycled padding from Blick stuff that nothing shifts around. Then order postage online from USPS and have it picked up on Monday unless Monday is a postal holiday.