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I have always been a dog person. So for me to paint a cat, is something I myself would never think of doing.

Don’t get me wrong, I love all kinds of animals, cats included. Throughout my whole life, dogs have always been my preferred pets and I have to admit that I do feel a wee bit uncomfortable being close to cats. One of reason is that they are so tiny, fragile and aloof. So very different compared to dogs.

So what made me do this? Several of my friends thought it was a commissioned piece, which is was not.

Now, do you believe in serendipity? Chance encounters? I do, always have. And this is one good example.

I went to a friend’s house, who is a musician and also a cat lover (they have 3!), with the intention to take some photos of musical instruments for future work references. It so happened

The last portrait I did was way back in 2013 and it was of my late father. He suggested that I should draw an elderly person with lots of character in the face. Which translated to lots of wrinkles and lines.

At that time, I was quite a freshie in art and I recalled telling him where am I to find one. Even if I found one, I will be too shy to take a photo of that person. In the end, he did me a favour and posed for me, scrunching up his face to produce as much wrinkles as possible (that’s how funny he was).  A couple of moths after I have completed his portrait, he left us. It was the most devastating time of my life and I have not done anymore portraits until now.

Stand Back 200ft (2013)

So now, what made me paint this particular portrait?

Now, this is an interesting piece. You may think, who on earth is this ‘weird’ looking man, what made me paint him?

Well well, this funny looking man is my DAD!! People who look at me, then him, will go “Are you sure?” We get that remarks, always!! Let me just tell you something about him.

He is half chinese(father’s side) and mom side is eurasian. There’s where the surname ‘Kow’ came from (Kow in mandarin means tall). His mom side is ‘Fidelis’, a mix of dutch and something else…(lost in generation) LOL….. And there’s where he got his tanned complexion.

Ok, let’s cut the story short.

He is very supportive of my art work and always tell me to paint a potrait of old wrinkly people. I was quite reluctant to because I don’t think I could handle wrinkle well. So one fine day, when

This is my 1st ever portrait. PHEW!!! It’s tough, everything about it, the skin tone, the expression etc..

This is a portrait of my nephew, Gabriel, from my 2nd youngest brother, Julian and Nicole, who are residing in Shanghai currently. Gabby is now almost 6 years old. I came about this photo of his on Facebook, posted by his mom. It immediately caught my attention. The composition of the whole image is just too good to not paint it, especially with the franggipanni flowers on each ear, too cute!

This is how I started on the sketch. I used the grid system. I used a tracing paper and draw out a 1″x 1″ grid and put it against the reference photo, which I enlarged it to A4 size. Then proceed to draw the grind very lightly with a ‘H’ graphite pencil on the drawing paper, the grind size on