New painting: snow leopard

The snow leopard is in muted, earthy colours: warm green, buff, cool yellow, grey, brown and white. I used a rag to give the background some texture, and different brushes to build up the fur. Cats always seem wrong without their whiskers, but they have to be done last - very frustrating!

I like the sense of narrative in this piece - what are those sharp eyes looking at? What’s about to happen? The falling snow provides a sense of time captured too.

Reference photo by kind courtesy of Frida Lannerstrom.