Custom Pet Portrait Illustration in a Stained Glass Roundel

It's strange, and rather nice, when something you have been mulling over for a while, gets the opportunity to become real.

I had been thinking about doing either pet portraits, or coats of arms, or family crests or some such, in an illustrative style as a stained glass piece for a while.

But life gets in the way, and it seemed that the ideas would stay in my sketch book for a while longer.

Then out of the blue, an email requesting a custom piece - a portrait of a loved but long-lost cat.  When I saw the accompanying photo of a handsome black cat, with sharp green eyes, stiff white whiskers and a perfect white moustache, I couldn't help but feel a bit excited at the prospect of painting this dapper character.

And below is one of my coat of arms sketches.  Maybe the opportunity to make one of these will arise in the not too distant future as well.  I like the idea of the family pets holding up the shield (although it could prove tricky if the family pets are stick insects).