I have long loved Art Deco/Art Nouveau and Poster Art. Back in the late 90s, I saw Théophile Alexandre Steinlen’s 1896 Color Lithograph poster for the cabaret called Le Chat Noir.  I had always wanted to try my hand at doing a version of the poster but never got around to it.

Well, I finally did!

I took a little license, namely changing it from the name of a cabaret to the name of my precious cat so that I could commemorate the anniversary of her being with me for two years.  I also changed the kitty’s eyes and added in Bastet’s white star to make it more her.

I started the painting back at the beginning of May but didn’t finish it until a month later. Turns out, what I assumed would be a very simple piece turned out to be a bit more complicated! Here are some of the snags:

1. Choice of Subject: When I first saw this poster so many years back, I figured I could churn out the picture in a night.  It was very basic in shape and didn’t have a lot of fiddly bits. I was very mistaken, for several reasons.
   • Color: I knew it was going to take several coats to get the rich hue I wanted, but I didn’t expect just how many. I lost count how many times I had to go over it. I just couldn’t get the depth of color I wanted without using lots…and lots…and lots of paint.
   • Strong bright highlights in a dark field: It would be great if I could just layer the yellow highlights in over the black, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen so I had to paint *around* the highlights. It was a lot more detailed than it looks and took a lot of coats on both the background colors and the highlights.
2. Canvas: I decided to use an old, stained on I had lying around the house. This would have been fine for a picture with dark hues like “The Flight That Unites,” but with all the yellow, it was hard to get the yellow to cover the stains
3. Sketching in Pencil: Ordinarily, I sketch in pencil. Again, had this been dark colors, it would not have been as much as a problem.  The graphite in the pencil smeared and combined with the yellow, muddying it and contributing to my need to do a billion coats.

Overall, I am glad to have ticked off a project that has been bouncing around on the backburner for far too long, but I think I am going to continue to play with it – but digitally! I think it might be fun to try different backgrounds and other approaches to this same composition and idea.

NOTE: I just realized – now that it is way too late – I was supposed to have an e at the end of noir.  *headdesk*  That’s an F in French for me!

The Gla-mew-rous Model

Bastet Ishtar Sekhmet Titania Sombra De Elba Mew Mew Mew