I received an email today where the photos are of cats that someone painted - as in, took a real cat and airbrushed it. I researched a bit and found that the photos are from a book, Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics. The sites I found said that the cats in the photographs were painted with a non-toxic, vegetable dye but I am suspicious. Why aren’t the whiskers dyed, too? How would an artist isolate the whiskers? In art school, we used a clear plastic called “frisket” (possibly misspelled - sorry. Years of art fumes have rotted my brain) but that isn’t something one could/would apply to a living animal. I can’t even get my cat to sit still for a regular picture much less to air brush her!
Here is a link to some photos and arguments for/against spray painting your cat: