I make it no secret that I love crafting. I make cat toys and snuffles to sell at events and regularly create things for my cats. I even crocheted Zoloft a couch which has been passed on to his younger brothers.
Even if you don’t knit or crochet, there are still ways you can craft for or with your cat. I’ve written about making a paw print holiday ornament before, but did you know you can paint with your cat? No, I didn’t say paint you cat. You can actually have your cat do the painting! It’s not as messy as it sounds and you’ll get some cool results.
Supplies
You may already have some of the supplies you’ll need sitting around home. If not, you can easily find most of them at a craft supply store or on Amazon. You may also be able to ask someone on your local Buy Nothing group for supplies to save a bit as you likely won’t need much.
While this guide is written as if you are doing a single painting with your cats, you can easily do multiple paintings as you’ll have the supplies. You should gather:
- Canvas. You can use stretched canvas or flat canvas, but flat may be slightly easier to work with. Smaller canvases are a good idea, but don’t limit yourself if you feel adventurous. Alternative: Try something fun like a cat shaped piece of wood!
- Zip lock bags. You’ll want to make sure they are big enough to fit the canvas inside with a bit of wiggle room so the bag doesn’t burst open.
- Non-toxic acrylic paint in any number of colors you desire.
- A favorite cat toy, treats, and/or silver vine powder
- Optional, but a good idea: Something to thin the paint. While methods vary, basic white glue or a product specifically for thinning acrylic paint work (just make sure they’re non-toxic in case of accidents). You’ll also want a few disposable cups and something to stir if you go this route.
- Optional, but recommended: A small paint brush
- Optional: Masking or painter’s tape or stickers. These should be adhesive enough to get a decent seal, but also should be able to be removed cleanly.
- Optional: A towel or solid sheet.
It’s a good idea to clip your cat’s nails before doing the project. This prevents damage to the art or paint getting places you don’t want paint.
Select Colors
Before you begin, you’ll want to select the colors for the paintings. You can either choose the colors or, for a fun way to add extra involvement from your cats, let you cats choose what colors they want to paint with. Make sure the paints are sealed and clean and then set out a few options.
Side note: Did you know cats don’t see the same range of colors we do, but they have some color vision? Learn more about how cats see.
Let your cats interact with the paint bottles and decide how they will “tell” you that they want to use a color. It may be them whichever ones they sniff first or you may set them somewhere the cats could knock them over (ideally from a low height so the bottle doesn’t burst open). Take however many colors your cat selects and use those for their artwork.
Set Up Without The Cats
If you like the background of the painting the color it is, you can keep it that way or your can choose to do a layer of a solid color (maybe you have a black cat and want them to do a painting on a black background). Let the paint dry completely and consider doing a second layer to make sure the background is solid.
If you want to make a cutout painting (for example, you want there to be a word or phrase that is the same color as the background), you can use the tape or stickers on the canvas to protect it from paint. Make sure the edges are very firmly attached to the canvas so no paint leaks under.
Before involving your cats further, you’ll want to prepare the paints they’ll use in a separate room from them. In a well ventilated area, take the colors of paint you or your cats selected and mix them with a bit of glue or paint thinner in a disposable cup. The goal is to make it flow a bit more easily.
It doesn’t need to be water thin, but you want the paint to move. Add it slowly as you can always add more once you’re satisfied with how well the paint flows.
Prepare The Artwork
Once the canvas and paint are set up, take the canvas and put it inside a zip lock bag. Flatten the bag so you get as much air out of it as possible, but don’t close it yet. Lift the top of the bag just enough so you can fit the cups containing your paint in.
You can then pour a bit of paint on the canvas inside the bag wherever you’d like. It doesn’t need to cover the entire canvas, but there should be enough that when it is moved, it will cover the entire canvas. Keep it away from the opening of the bag and, from an artistic standpoint, it may look nicer to keep it from the canvas edges.
Carefully press any remaining air out without spreading the paint around and seal the bag. It should be sealed enough so paint won’t get out (or you should have a big enough bag that there is a lot of room between the canvas and opening) but not so much that your cat standing on it would burst the bag. Exploding artwork is not the goal here. The only thing worse than cleaning paint of your rug is cleaning cat pee out of your rug!
Paint With Your Cats!
Now, the fun begins! You can either set the bag on the floor or carefully bring it to the other room where your cats are. Try not to let the paint run too much so the real artists, your cats, can do their work. If you want to have the final result remain a mystery, consider placing a solid towel over it so you can’t see the results until you’re done.
Your goal is now to get your cats to run, step, and generally move their paws on the bag so the paint underneath gets spread around. You can do this in a few ways:
- Some cats will paw at the paint on their own as they see this as similar to other fun enrichment activities.
- Guide them over by playing with a favorite toy so they run and leap onto the canvas.
- Sprinkle some silver vine or catnip on the bag so your cat will roll around on it.
- Use their favorite treats to get them to walk across. I find using lickable treats to work best as you can guide your cats across by holding the tube.
Have fun with this part! It may take a bit of time and that’s okay. Painting with cats should be fun for you and the cats. When you are satisfied with how the paintings look or your cats lose interest, you can guide your cats to the other room. If you chose to do the mystery version of painting with cats, remove the towel and see what they made!
Wrapping Up
Carefully open the bags and take out the canvas. Set the canvasses somewhere safe where the cats won’t be able to ahem continue working on their artwork. I usually set mine on the washer on top of the used bags as a way of keeping things tidy and getting the most use out of the plastic bag.
If you decided to use tape or stickers to create a shadow effect, once the paint has died, you can peel it off carefully. If you have white acrylic paint (and your cats are okay with you helping with their artwork) or another color that matches the background, you can touch up any leaks that occurred. You may also like the results as is. There isn’t a wrong answer.
Bam! You just painted with your cats. No need to get their cute little toe beans messy and you have a fun memento of your time together. Feel free to write their names and the date of their masterpiece on the back.
Final Results
If you’re wondering how mine turned out, here’s one of my guys’ final products:
Bonus idea: Depending on the colors used, you may be able to get a paw print using a clean touch ink pad. You can also do another painting where you purposefully block off part of the canvas using tape to do this after you are done. You can also do it on the back. It’s your project (well, technically it’s your cats’ project) so you can do whatever feels best.
I hope you enjoyed painting with cats and find somewhere to prominently display their work. You’ll have fun memories of this project for the rest of your days!
