The Cat Smith, nearly but not quite there

So, where had I got to?

The first layers are in place, the underlayer of the tail included, so we have a genuine sense of the whole cat, sitting gazing seriously out at us. But you can see through the cat to the fabric beneath, and the board behind that, and I would rather the cat were solid, and properly marked.

More to do!

So the first thing to do was to thicken and extend Smith’s bib, place the mitten on his paw, and start adding more tangled layers of stitching to his fur.

So you can see that the fur is thicker now. I’m not entirely happy with the point of the bib as yet, but I felt when I’d got to this stage that the next stage should be to put in more of the dark markings, hoping that that would help the other elements of the fur to settle into place.

And I think it really has. The darker markings on fur and tail, the shadow between the two front legs and the shadow beneath the paws, all are helping to create a nice, solid, furry cat.

There are a few tweaks, I think, that need to be done, specifically something around the haunch and the tail, but I’m not quite sure what they are, so I need to settle down and stare at my source photo for long enough to load it into my head and find the last few stitches.

As I think about all this, I realise that, although this is very much a continuation of my usual practice of diving in and getting there eventually, the thing about the Animal Vignettes is that unpicking isn’t really possible, since the stitching is (deliberately) so tangled.

So until I get the necessary quiet to sit and stare, Smith is Nearly Finished.

The Cat, Smith, creeping onward

You may recall that when you last saw The Cat, Smith, he was more or less tail-less, a situation which accorded not at all with his dignity, and could not, he assured me, be permitted to continue for so much as a minute.

Alas for poor Smith, shortly after that there was an outbreak of chaos, and he had to sit there on his little stub of a tail for three whole weeks before I could put it right.

Still, here we are, at last, I’ve managed to get at least a first layer of stitching down all over Smith, including his tail.

As you can see here, I’m building up layers of stitches in single strands, trying to entangle the layers a bit, so that each layer modifies other layers, and I am beginning to try to separate out the front legs and hind paws.

The white of the cat’s bib reaches much further down than I had it originally, but of course, in the shadow it won’t be white. Finding the right shade to help with that is not entirely straightforward, it turns out.

At this point, though, I think he’s ready for me to start putting his dark markings on him. There will be some more of the various lighter browns to put in later, but I think I need to put the darks in to see whether I have got the rest of it right.

As always, now, I find that the way I work in stitch and the way I work in paint are beginning to blend together. In this case, the darks will help me find my anchors and mooring points across the design (yes, he’s small, but the smaller the design, the more important the waymarkers – trust me on this!) and that in turn will create a nice solidly, furry cat.

More on the cat, Smith

The Cat Smith, like all cats, has Standards. Whether I’ll attain comparable standards is still not certain!

I think the head is pretty much done, at least until final balancing, so now I have to move on to the body. This is the blocking-in stage, so I’m starting by looking at my image source. This particular cat looks lighter on the right hand side than the left, so I’m starting with a sort of underlayer of cretan stitches across the body.

Light fawn on the right, here, and grey on the left. What I am hoping is that after a couple of suitably tangled layers of cretan stitch, as I do the smaller markings, there will be a nicely furry effect. It’s really useful that I can see the cat through the gauze while I’m planning this!

I now realise, however, that I’ve forgotten to do poor Smith’s tail!

I also think that his white shirtfront isn’t quite big enough, but that gives me a chance to blur the edges a bit more, which will help with the furriness.

And I think the eyes need to be bigger, and maybe lighter. But, you know, the more I study my sources, the more it becomes possible to see what I need to do next.

Starting The Cat, Smith

There is, among the dramatis animalae (my thanks to Anne Louise Avery for coming up with the term!) of “The Herb of Grace”, a tabby of imposing mien, introduced by his staff as “The cat, Smith”. In my memory he gets the whole name and title in full on all occasions, so I decided to include a tabby cat looking gravely out at the viewer.

Working on gauze produces alarming effects, early on. I started with the eyes, this time. I can tweak them later, but I felt that if I had them in place it might make placement of everything else easier.

I might even be right. I think I’ve set the eyes too close, and maybe not made the ears broad enough, but he is gradually taking shape.

Everything about these animal vignettes is an exercise in learning to see, and discovering how much more there is to see on each pass. As I write this, some weeks after beginning to stitch The Cat, Smith, I find myself comparing my stitching with my source photo and spotting things I missed, or maybe mishandled, and wondering how much tweaking that gauze will take.

I don’t think the head is finished, but I felt it was time to move on to the body, all the same. I’m going to try to block everything in and then refine later, so here I’m starting with his shirt front, and as I continue I will pick what seems like either the predominant colour or the background colour, whichever seems easier, and work that.

Each layer worked into that layer will help to create colours and shadows and, I hope, the sense of air in the fur.