"Kitty Up": Progress Report

This is where the painting was at when I started last night:

(I just noticed how the shadow under the Timothy's rear leg doesn't connect to the leg so he looks like he's levitating!)

And this is how the painting looks NOW:

Eeee!  It's really starting to look like a painting now!  It could prove a little too soon for the details (stripes and such) but putting them in now helps me make sure everything else in in the right place (and helps with all the shading).  You can't see it very well in the photo but Timothy even has a wee mouth (it's kind of cute/creepy in person, like a mix between the Cheshire cat and Mona Lisa).

You can see I tied that shadow to Timothy's rear leg, too (just couldn't leave it the way it was even though it will probably change a million times before the painting is done).  I also lightened Timothy's head a bit.  It's surprisingly difficult to lighten black without accidentally going into gray territory.  It's more noticable in person but you can see it a bit in the pic (on the right ear--right as you look at the painting).

And in a rare move, almost the entire edge of the canvas (the part that wraps around the sides) is painted, too.  There's just one white spot at the top (where the clampy part of the stand holds the canvas) and the bottom is still raw (and will be for some time I suppose).

OH, and in case you were wondering, yes, that's a painting of a nude lady there in the background (GASP!).  We had a model last night but I didn't feel like painting her.  I'm a week behind on "Kitty Up" and there are only two more classes before the session is over and I'm gonig to miss one of those so. . .yeah, only one more class with "Kitty Up" before summer break.  No, I know I'm not going to get it done in one more session.  I also know I don't paint at all at home (the lighting is too bad) so I need all the studio time I can get.

OH, and for the record, here's what I'm aiming for:

I'm still wondering if the lettering (right corner) is going to end up in the final painting.  I'd like it to just for the oddness of it but I'm not sure.  And I'm going to underexpose Timothy's eyes a bit, so we can see that the buttons are indeed different from each other.