Hope for Compassion

a portrait of the cat as king

Hope for Compassion

I’m so pleased with my finished art journal spread, “When Cat is King.” On its surface, it’s a colorful, lush, decorative piece built around a portrait of a noble feline. But at its heart, it’s a plea for compassion for cats.

Also at its heart is the message I always hope to convey in my art: animals are sentient beings with a full range of emotion and spiritual centers. They deserve our respect, love, and care.

Embellishing with Lace and Metallics

Beginning where I left off last weekend, I really had the spread mostly complete. The major elements were there. What it needed now was embellishment. And with that in mind, the first thing I wanted to do was portray royalty in this cat's portrait by adding metallics.

From fairly early on in the creation of this piece, I knew I’d like a band across both the top and bottom rather than a frame around the whole spread, which is a device I often use.

I searched through my collection of fiber trims to see if I had anything that would work. I found a beautiful gold metallic trim, but it was too big. It just drew all the viewer’s attention to itself.

But I did have a similar piece which was smaller and white. I figured I could add it and then, if I wanted, I could lightly brush some gold paint over it. It wouldn’t give full coverage, but would just catch on the highest parts of the dimensional trim. I thought that would work just fine.

cat as king art journal spread with metallics and trim added

Even with the trim, metallics, and a few crystals, I felt the piece needed more lushness, so decided on adding the morning glory vine. I drew then painted the vine, leaves, flowers, and buds behind the scrollwork. This was a bit of a challenge, but I thought it was worth it, as I feared it would be too prominent a feature otherwise.

A Message for Compassion

As I said earlier, the heart of this piece is a message for compassion. Part of that message is in the poem. Amateurish as it is, I copy it here just to give the sentiment:

When Cat is King

All hearts will sing

And voice raise

In joy and praise.

They’ve suffered much,

The Feline tribes.

Cruelty and such

Took innocent lives.

Now Cat is King.

Hope’s the thing.

And cruelty? Gone,

In this new dawn.

Yes, Cat is King!

Give thanks and praise

To him who rules

These best of days.

And there was one final sentiment, written in black pigment pen on the cat’s robes: “Just, gentle, humble, and king, converting souls one heart at a time.” (I put this in after I took the photo.)

Metallics are Difficult to Photograph

One of the frustrations of using metallics in my art is that I find it so hard to photograph them. But you can get a sense of them in this photo that I took with the spread at an angle.

view of art spread showing metallics

And here’s another view. It’s at a different time of day and the light makes the piece look much warmer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, as both these photos were taken later in the process.

another view of the art spread showing the metallics

A Closer Look

Here’s a closer view of the left side of the spread. I really like the colors and how the background, the lace trim, and the morning glory vine all complement each other. And, of course, this goes for the right side of the spread as well since they’re all components of the background.

The poem, as I mentioned in my last blog post, is in an uncial script. This serves two purposes. First, the font is consistent with the medieval look that I’ve tried to achieve in the spread. Second, it’s a little difficult to read, which adds a bit of mystery, and maybe importance.

You get a better idea in this closer view of the morning glory vine that it twines behind the repeat pattern of swirls. I painted the leaves and vines with a mixture of the metallic Topaz I used in the strips at the top and bottom of the page with a bit of green acrylic gouache. I wish I’d used less of the green so that the mixture would have been closer to the topaz, but I didn’t want to add more topaz because, as I said earlier, the tube I have of that paint will have to last me for a lifetime! The green seemed very strong, so it would have required a lot of topaz to make much of a change.

the left side of the art spread, "Cat is King"

As for the right side, of course the cat is the main focus. Since I collaged it with a copy of an original drawing of mine in which I’d tried to take the graphite pretty far, it has a gray haze around it. I could have torn the drawing closer to the cat, but I didn’t, and that was that! I tried adding white colored pencil over the gray haze, but it didn’t make much difference.

After adding a little colored pencil to the eyes, nose, mouth, and inner ears, I thought I’d leave the color on the cat at that. But in the end, I decided to add more, specifically ochre on parts of the facial fur and deep purple over the robe.

right side of the finished art spread "Cat is King"

Why is the crown floating above the cat’s head rather than resting on it? I don’t know! But I do know that I'm happy with my "Cat is King" journal spread, and I hope his majesty is too! And I hope my message of Hope for Compassion spreads far and wide and takes root in many hearts.

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