Painted Cats

[brendaal]

All right, going to try this. I have gotten this email twice now, and since there are a lot of photos, I just uploaded them to photobucket and I'll just post the link to that folder.
IMO, these are photo shopped, and I told both people that sent it to me that I thought it was photoshopped. What do you guys think? Some are more obvious than others, like the purple Persian.

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y17...ainted%20cats/

I am also trying to figure out how to post the links as links, so I apologize if you have to cut and paste.
manda

[Lainie]

Fake. If the cats had been painted, the texture of their fur would have been affected by the paint. Ever get paint in your hair?

[inkrose115]

I rememeber seeing most of those in a book on painting cats though. O_o

[franjava]

Your link worked. I vote photoshopped. *IF* any of them are real, it's probably a vegetable-based dye or powder like what was used on the horses in the Wizard of Oz (the horse that kept changing colors.) I'd like to see someone get a cat to sit still long enough to paint it so perfectly, then keep it from licking the stuff off. Seems like way too much work to me!

[Victoria J]

I don't think you can judge all of them together.

Some of them seem to be clearly fake. The skeleton cat only works for the single angle of the photo. At least one also appears to have solid fur ears as part of the painted area - where there would actually be a view of the inside of the ear. Some of the "painted face" ones appear to have altered facial features that I think go beyond the effects of painting around the eyes and mouth...

Some seem equally obviously real. The piano cat just has stripes painted on it - with the hair texture clearly effecting the dye. And I don't see any reason why a normal hair texture wouldn't follow dyed and dried hair.

A couple of them, particularly the green tartan cat, made me think of projection (with the pattern distorted). Though I guess it is more likely that the effect is photoshopped than actually projected on the cat.

Lots of them seem believable, and I would have thought could be actual or faked. If you had a docile cat.

I think my favourite were the black and white cats painted (?) so that there where white stars and moons.

The first one is somewhat disturbing - why would you want to paint cleavage on a cat ? And photo 5 - that man is far more disturbing the cat (looking the same as his cat as far as the ears and wide eyes).

Victoria J

[Muncle]

Originally Posted by inkrose115

I rememeber seeing most of those in a book on painting cats though. O_o

Yep...my friend had the calendar last year. Even at that higher quality, I've never been totally sure. If my parent's cat is sleeping, you can do practically anything to it until it wakes up of its own accord. And if you rub his belly, he's complete putty.
Contrastingly, his brother is fantastically high-strung. It's impossible to get near him.

[Kitsune27]

I tried to get the link to the actual site, but it seems to be not working. So here's the link to the book that all these all appear in. It has a description of the process that is used to paint the cats, as well as why they are painted (off the top of my head the purple skunk striped cat and the pink and green striped on were part of therepy for children, and the purple heart cats was aprt of an ad for a service that taught Australian men how to be gentle and relate to women). It really is a neat book.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Paint-Cats.../dp/1580082718

[brendaal]

So, they ARE painted?
Ah well, I guess I'll write back to the peeps that sent me the pics and say I guess they are painted LOL.

[carter108]

HIJACK!!!!!!!!!

My dad use to work in a factory near the river building cranes. Some times the paint shop guys would paint various critters that came through the paint building. It was nothing to see orange rats, yellow roaches, and the occasional painted cat.

[bthyb]

The companion book to "Why Paint Cats" is "Why Cats Paint," and shows art work done by cats who had been trained to use their paws to paint on paper taped to a wall.

Needless to say, the cats sometimes painted off the paper onto the wall. Then their creativity was praised.

[Venus]

I have that 'Why cats paint' book. it's fascinating. i wish i could get my cats to do that. I wish i could paint them too. Diego would be stunningly gorgeous in green.

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

Originally Posted by Kitsune27

I tried to get the link to the actual site, but it seems to be not working. So here's the link to the book that all these all appear in. It has a description of the process that is used to paint the cats, as well as why they are painted (off the top of my head the purple skunk striped cat and the pink and green striped on were part of therepy for children, and the purple heart cats was aprt of an ad for a service that taught Australian men how to be gentle and relate to women). It really is a neat book.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Paint-Cats.../dp/1580082718

This one's working, but doesn't seem to be much more than a reader feedback page.

[One-Fang]

IIRC both are spoofs. No cats actually created canvas art, nor were actually painted. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I heard that now and so I will back out of the thread quietly.

[dlloyd1]

Originally Posted by One-Fang

IIRC both are spoofs. No cats actually created canvas art, nor were actually painted. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I heard that now and so I will back out of the thread quietly.

It's more obvious with their other book, "Dancing with Cats"

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Cats-B...944159-5811131

I have that and the "Why Cats Paint" book. Why Cats Paint is extremely entertaining and, on the surface, looks like a well researched piece of work, but the references are totally bogus.

Originally Posted by One-Fang

IIRC both are spoofs. No cats actually created canvas art, nor were actually painted. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I heard that now and so I will back out of the thread quietly.

Having cats paint is a fairly common thing... several of the cat rescues here sell cat-art produced by their furry artists.

[llewtrah]

Similar queries/concerns came up when the book was originally published and it was confirmed back then that none of the cats were actually painted. Some of the animal welfare orgs got concerned that people would actually try to paint their cats and since cats' livers have comparitively poor function, even some of the supposedly harmless dyes could be toxic to cats. However there are loads more images, some of which may come from members of the b3ta community.

[Muncle]

Originally Posted by dlloyd1

It's more obvious with their other book, "Dancing with Cats"

http://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Cats-B...944159-5811131

I have that and the "Why Cats Paint" book. Why Cats Paint is extremely entertaining and, on the surface, looks like a well researched piece of work, but the references are totally bogus.

My favourite quote from the dancing book:

Other cat dancers I've talked to on the web use Heavy Metal, Techno and World Beat. One guy says he uses Marley to building up such strong vibrational levels in just five minutes that they last for days. But you have to be careful; sometimes the energy is so powerful I worry about overstimulating my aura. At those levels, an unstable etheric oscillation could collapse into an astral vortex and suck my spiritual reserves into a state of negative sub-matter

The book has some wonderful pictures in it, although some of them look like they just throw a cat in the air, or maybe dangle a piece of string just out of the frame.

[inkrose115]

I need to buy those books! My sister will think it's a hoot. And if you want your own 'dancing' cats, buy one of those little carboard bits on a wire (called a 'cat dancer' at the store we bought it at) My BIL's cat is so lazy but he loves the toy so much, that if you dangle it in front of him he'll lie on his side on his couch cushion and bat at it half-heartedly with one paw.

[llewtrah]

What is it about coloured cats right now? I've just had an email asking where to get a green cat! After April Fools a few years ago, I left my green cat breed hoax page online (with some not very convincing retouched photos) but labelled it as an April Fool joke and noted that green cats weren't real. Seems that some folks don't bother to read the disclaimer

[Gayle]

I'd rather not be bitten by a pissed off and partially purple cat, so I won't try it. We used to paint the friend's white dog with Kool Aid.