Learn How to Paint a Cat and Moon
Description
In this tutorial, you will learn how to paint an easy composition of a cat, or two cats, sitting on a branch and staring at a moon. Paint some swirls in the sky to add to the whimsical effect and also learn how to splatter paint your stars on the canvas!
The leaves can definitely be customized to the seasons. And those tree branches are just like the branches you seen in a few of my other painting tutorials!
Enjoy this tutorial and don’t forget to share your version of the painting on the Pinterest pin or on the Facebook page! Thanks for viewing!
See Also Halloween Cat:
Level/ Duration:
Level: Very Easy/ First Painting, Duration 1-2 Hours
This Post Contains Affiliate Links
Materials:
- Acrylic Paint (I used Apple Barrel Craft Paint but give a suggested color if you’re using other paint)
- Paint Colors:
- Flag Red (Cad Red Medium)
- Jack O Lantern Orange (Cad Orange Hue)
- Yellow (Cad Yellow Medium)
- Bright Blue (Primary Blue)
- Bimini Blue (Bright Aqua Green)
- White (Titanium White)
- Black (Mars Black)
- 16″ x 20″ Canvas or 8″ x 10″ canvas or whatever size you want!
- Brushes:
- 1″ Flat Brush
- 1″ Angle Brush
- Medium Round Brush (#3 or similar size)
- 9″ Paper plate to trace the moon
- Palette or paper plate for palette
![]()
Traceable (Optional):
Go to PDF library to download PDF version. With PDF files, you can scale up and down as needed.
If you’re doing the version with the two cats, there is no traceable but they are really very simple to paint! Use chalk to draw the outline of the heads and bodies first and also the tails.
Directions At A Glance:
Video:
Step By Step Pictures
1. Trace The Moon
First I started with a blank 16″ x 20″ canvas.
I traced an 9″ paper plate with a pencil. This circle represents the moon. (Can you believe how simple this is so far!?)
2. Paint The Sky
I mixed equal parts “bimini blue” and white paint together. Then I painted the turquoise-white ring around the moon. I used a 1″ flat brush to paint this ring. The ring is about 1″ thick (doesn’t have to be exact).
Next I painted a “bimini blue” (not mixed with anything) ring around the first ring. I blended the two colors together using a wet brush. You’ll see in the video exactly how I did this!
Then I painted another ring with “bright blue”. I also used a wet brush to blend the colors together.
Then I filled the rest of the canvas in (the corners) with bright blue. I kept my strokes going in a circle.
3. Paint Some Moonbeams
Then I used a 1/4″ flat brush to paint arc lines around the moon. I did this with white paint. To make the white more translucent, dip it in the water more.
4. Paint The Tree
Then I painted the tree with black paint. To do this, I used a 1″ angle brush. I recommend practicing your tree first on a separate paper until you feel comfortable painting it on the canvas.
5. Paint Some Leaves
Then I used a small round brush to paint the fall leaves. Use the tip of the brush to dot in red, yellow and orange leaves. You don’t have to clean your brush off between colors.
6. Draw & Paint The Cat (Or Cats)
Then I drew the cat with pencil. (Pencil will erase on the canvas.)
Paint the cat in black using a small round brush.
Alternatively you can paint two cats siting on a branch!
7. Paint Swirls & Stars In The Sky
Using a small round brush and some light bimini blue mixed with white paint color, paint some swirls in the sky. Also, to paint stars, flick your paintbrush with white paint to create a splatter paint effect.
Finished!
Sharing Is Caring!
Finished! If you do this painting, please share your painting on Pinterest in the “Tried It” section of my pin or on the Facebook Page!
Let’s Keep In Touch!
-
SIGN UP TO MY EMAIL LIST AND YOU’LL RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS IN YOUR INBOX WHEN NEW ART PROJECTS ARE POSTED!
-
FOLLOW MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS THAT WAY!
-
LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK OR FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!
Start with Pure Blue Paint.
Load a large 2″ flat brush (or whatever large brush you have) with water.
Water down that blue on the palette.
Paint the entire canvas with watered down blue. Make your strokes go up and down in a vertical motion.
Fill the entire canvas. I like leaving some of the canvas transparent but if you want solid that is fine too!
Next get your chalk to draw on the canvas. Chalk will erase with a wet paint brush or your fingers. Draw a crescent moon.
Mix white and yellow together on your palette.
Paint in the moon shape.
Lightly paint in some curved lines around the moon.
Dip your medium flat brush in the yellow-white paint. Flick the paint with your finger and allow the paint to “spray” and “splatter” on the canvas. This represents stars! If it’s not splattering, try watering down the paint a little more by dipping your brush in the water.
Next I drew out the composition of the cat. With your chalk, draw a diagonal line. This line will help to draw the cat in at an angle. It will also help keep the drawing symmetrical.
Draw in a “cat eye” shape for the cat’s head. Keep in mind that the chalk is meant to be erased if you need to redo your shape. I re-did my shape five times until I got it right!
Draw in cat ears.
Draw in some more lines on the inside of the cat ears.
Draw in the body with a “squiggle line” on both sides. Remember, that line is to help with your symmetry.
Connect the bottom of the cat’s body with a line. Draw in the cat’s tail.
Draw a curved line for the pumpkin.
Draw a plus on the cat’s head.
This plus will help you draw the eyes. Draw in two “cat eye” shapes.
Finish the cat’s face with a nose and mouth.
Next, paint in the cat’s body with black paint.
Paint in the cat’s head but leave the eyes unpainted.
Mix white and green together on your palette. Paint in the eyes with a small round brush.
Add some black in for the cat’s pupils.
Paint in the cat’s ears gray. (If you don’t have gray, mix a little bit of black paint with white). Paint the nose pink. (If you don’t have pink, mix white and red).
With the gray and your small round brush, paint in the mouth and the whiskers.
Paint some “fur” lines on both sides of the head.
Add some more whiskers on the top of the head. Paint small white dots in the pupils of the eyes. Paint white “highlight” lines inside the ears. Paint white “highlight” lines on the green portion of the eyes.
Paint the pumpkin orange with a medium flat brush. The direction of the stroke should go in the direction of the curved line of the pumpkin you drew with chalk.
Load your brush with yellow paint. Lightly paint over the orange with the yellow. This will blend with the orange causing color variation in the pumpkin. If you need to re-paint the black bottom of the cat again, then do so.
Add in more stars, in the background by painting small dots and asterisks. Paint in swirls for the wind. I did this with white paint.
Start with your canvas in “Portrait” position. We are going to paint a frame on the canvas. Wet some black paint so that it is “ink” consistency.
Paint a squiggle line.
The squiggle line should be about two fingers from the edge of the canvas.
The frame will look like this. 
Next mix equal amounts of yellow and green together. Or, if you wish, make the frame your color of choice!
Paint the frame all the way around the canvas.
Next paint some polka dots with purple paint. This is where you can customize and do your own color/pattern. Stripes or checkers would look neat!
After the frame pattern is all painted, you may have to re-paint some of that squiggle line again. I’m not a “paint inside the lines” kind of girl so I definitely had to go back and re-paint.
You can leave the background white or fill it in. The background inside my frame is a mixed color. I mixed a lot of white with a TINY bit of black and some blue. I brushed the color onto the canvas without fully mixing it and it made a blue-gray shade. The background should be a LIGHT color so that the pumpkins will “pop”. I recommend mixing any color with a lot of white.
Now you will sketch out your topiary with chalk. White chalk is great for drawing on acrylic paintings because if you mess up it will erase very easily. Start off by drawing two “C” lines at the top of your canvas. It is about the size of a fist.
Next draw a bump on the bottom and connect the top to make it look kind of like a heart shape. Erase and redo the chalk lines as much as you need to! I had to erase several times to get it right.
Repeat the next pumpkin only with bigger “c” lines.
Add the bump on the bottom. Think “happy face” line.
Draw the largest pumpkin. I made this one look flatter by making the bottom of my “C” line flat.
Add in that bottom bump “happy face” line.
On the top pumpkin, draw in an oval/tear drop looking shape by using that “happy face” bump as the bottom of the oval. In other words, all those “bump” lines are going to be the bottom of an oval.
Draw two more curved lines from the “happy face” line to the top of the middle pumpkin.
Draw in the bottom curved lines.
Next add more “C” lines on your pumpkin. Start at the bottom.
Then add “C” lines to the middle pumpkin.
Then add “C” lines to the top of the pumpkin.
Next you are going to mix ORANGE and RED together on your palette. With a SMALL ROUND brush, paint over all your white chalk lines.
I painted over all my chalk lines.
Now get orange paint and 1/4″ FLAT BRUSH. You are going to paint in thick orange lines making sure your stroke is in a “C” shape that goes in the same direction of all the red lines.
When you paint the oval, your stroke will go in an oval shape.
When you paint your strokes, you will pick up some red from the lines. THAT IS OKAY! It will make your orange have a little variety in color.
Keep painting in the same direction as all your red lines.
Next you are going to pick up some yellow paint on your brush. Lightly brush on yellow for some highlights. Go in the same direction as your orange strokes.
.
With brown paint and your small round brush, paint a little letter V line.
With your chalk, trace out the stem until you are satisfied with how it is going to look.
Paint in the stem solid brown.
Load your brush with yellow. Add some highlight to the stem.
Make your “ink” consistence black again.
With your small round brush, paint in your face expressions.
Wait for the black to dry completely. Then load your clean round brush with yellow. On the right side of all the lines of your facial expressions, paint in a thin yellow line. This will make the faces look a little 3D.
Here is a closeup. I painted yellow only on the right side of all the shapes and lines. This line of the eye only has yellow on the right and not on the left. Do this for all of your face shapes.
