Practice makes something: Cat fur edition

A few weeks ago, Keely had to go to the vet for a dental appointment. Since they administer anesthesia, he wasn't allowed to have food after midnight. To say he was confused and angry in the morning is an understatement. He legit sat in front of the kitchen, staring longingly into the room, occasionally making sad cat noises. You'd think he'd never been fed ever. 

I took this picture that morning.

For Keely's fifth birthday, I'm going to embroider a version of this photo. It's really the best way to celebrate the day. This picture sums up Keely in a lot of ways: food-centric, dramatic, and very into his feelings. Up until now, I've used satin and back stitches to create the various cats I've made. Both work well, but I thought it might be fun to try something new for this very special piece. So today's piece is a practice piece. 

I have no idea how to create animal fur. A lot of the more realistic works are done using thread painting techniques. Conceptually, I know how to thread paint, but I've never actually done it. What I created today is not really thread painting, but it's similar in that I attempted to layer colors to create Keely's fur. 

It's a cat and the stitches are fur-like, but it's not exactly right. Keely's fur is mostly shades of gray, with brown and white mixed in. This technique could work if I only use gray threads, which is probably what I'll end up doing. It looks much better than I thought it would for a first try. I like the overall look, but I need to practice more, which is one of the most challenging parts of this project. I don't have time to practice as much as I 'd like to. It takes a lot of time to do a daily piece, plus go to work and make dinner and pay attention to Keely. Maybe I'll be able to squeeze in another practice version this weekend.

The below photos are the various layers of thread I used to create the finished design. 

Layer one - starting with the lightest color like in painting.

Layer two - I love this one and might try to recreate it for a piece in the future.

Layer three

Layer four

Details:
Stitches: straight and back stitches
Thread palette: DMC 746 (2, 4 strands), 167, 318, 3799 (2 strands)