Tag Archives: cat art

Steampunk Maiden and Christmas Cat

Georgie Gears ATC
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Despite being raised with six brothers, Georgie was always the one their father came to for help with the family tractor. No one was surprised when she went on to found her own airship engineering company. Reference photo.

Made for a steampunk swap at illustratedatcs.com. I am very pleased with the style of this one. On the one hand it’s a rather typical “pretty girl” image. But I think she has some charm and personality. And I’m sure my 100 Maidens Project made a difference. I recommend these projects – repeated practice with a particular subject.

Nikolas the Christmas Cat
2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen

Nikolas wasn’t always a Christmas cat. At ten months old he ate some tinsel and that soured him on the whole subject for several years. But then he found his person – a woman named Lizzie living firmly in the spirit of Christmas six months of the year – so Nikolas gave it another shot. It was much better the second time. Made for a trade at illustratedatcs.com.

It’s very odd the number of cats and sheep I have been doing! I am a dog person. But I’ve gotten the most trade requests for cats and sheep, so I’ve gotten a bit quicker at them. But it’s still several hours each. Or more.

I’m going to try my hand at glass tile pendants with prints of my images, and these two are on the list. We’ll see how it goes! Thanks for dropping in!

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Books and Cats for Illustration Friday

Books and Cats, 8″ x 10″ Copics, fine liners

Totally ran out of time! I would have liked to do a lot more finishing. As well as add that spiral staircase sketched out on the left (below). Alas! For “Book” at Illustration Friday. I was seriously excited about this topic (and there are SO many awesome entries). But it turns out a bookshelf is not as easy a thing as one might think! (Egad – angles!) I do plan to do more of them. Not sure if I’ll finish this one or waltz on to the next thing.

Books and Cats, at least the name, was inspired by an extremely silly video called Boots and Cats. I STRONGLY suggest you stop watching when the bees show up. Particularly if you don’t like bees. But before that, the boots and cats are surprisingly mesmerizing. Possibly you are one of the 1.3 million people who have already watched it!

In other news, my last post did not seem to get emailed to any people following this blog. So, if you are one of the people and you didn’t get it, please check your spam. And apologies for the technical difficulties! I think I will be trying to find a new widget for followers because this is not the first problem.

Thanks for visiting! And please double check your link at Illustration Friday if you’ve entered. Lots of bad links last week!

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A Boot, a Cat, a Maiden, and Three Cool Dogs.

Whimsical Boot, Cat with Fairie, and Winged Moon Maiden
3.25″ x 2.25″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen on bristol board.

The boot is a recent favorite. Your heel has its own tiny chair – it’s the height of comfort! (Did you groan? So did I.) These three are from an address tag swap at illustratedatcs.com, and are meant to be hole-punched at the top and put on a ring. My address will appear on the back of each, and I will in turn get an address tag (with themes chosen from my preference list) from each of the same people. Yay! (The Winged Moon Maiden is Maiden Number 26.)

Have I convinced you that Artist Trading Card trading is super fun yet? How about some whimsical dogs? Made for a swap at atcsforall.com, the sister site of illustratedatcs.com.

Three ATCs for Whimsical Dogs Swap
Each 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, white gel pen on bristol board.

1. Brutus with Pipe. Brutus considers himself a terribly refined dog, and likes to smoke his pipe in the evenings. Sometimes after licking his butt.

2. Unrequited. The French Bulldog is Jackson. He is in love with a cat. The cat does not return his affections. In fact, the harried feline almost took out his eye in response to his recent advances. If she imagined this event would put an end to the whole business she was sadly mistaken, as Jackson had her portrait stitched into his eye patch.

3. Daisy with Kittens. Despite the apparent moment of calm captured above, Daisy’s patience was being tried, quite severely, by Inky the black kitten, aptly nicknamed The Terror of the East by the rest of the neighborhood. Why couldn’t she be more like her sister Luna, who could fall asleep in a snowstorm?

For more of my swap sets, I’ve posted about the Celestial Maidens, the Elemental Maidens, and Whimsical Robots. Hooray! Thanks so much for stopping in!

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ATC Cats in Copics and Blog Award

Witch Cat, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copic markers.

Selena is a water witch. She can cleanse a dirty well, draw the poison from a wound, and detect any trace of groundwater in a ten mile radius. She is rumored to have other, less savory skills, but only in the whispers of a jilted Tom.

I also thought it would be cool to see a row of ATC cats, due in part to the wild popularity (mild exaggeration) of my row of ATC sheep in this post. I seem to have a particular fondness for huge-eared Peterbald and Oriental Shorthair type cats (I always think that should say “Asian Shorthair”. Hmm.).

Five Cat ATCs, Copic markers. Left to Right: Peach Purple Peterbald Cat, Liam the Tree Tender,
Cat and Faerie (address tag card), Selena Witch Cat, Spook the Cat

And Another Thing

A big thanks to Linda Hensley for so kindly including me in her One Lovely Blog Award list. I couldn’t possibly pick seven favorite blogs to pass this along to, but I thought I could pick seven art blogs that are 1. lesser known, 2. posting consistently 3. not already in my sidebar. (Also that haven’t won this award recently, as far as I know.)

By the way, you should totally visit all those awesome blogs in my sidebar! But also these, on which I humbly bestow that small graphic called “One Lovely Blog Award”. And they will, if they choose, pass it along to seven blogs of their choice, too.

Sharon at del.art.ful. Go see “A bird a day” and other strange and beautiful things.
Claire Wildish. Hilarious and goofy characters, sometimes with photo backgrounds.
Ana Menéndez Fuentes. Darkly stylish pop culture digital illustration.
Alicia Gorecki. Colored pencils on toned paper, so cool!
Roland Prinsler. Pen and Ink in a tornado.
Linda at dots ‘n’ doodles.  Wonderfully cheerful illustrations.
Leigh at Colorfulleigh. A new blog from a new friend at illustratedatcs.com

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Professor Tortoise and Druid Cat, Illustration Friday

Professor Tortoise, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, white gel pen

Professor Tortoise is a meditation instructor. Now, maybe you think that’s just a dodgy way to slip in under the Illustration Friday topic, “Teacher”. And maybe you’re right! But I did have two days of horrible unable-to-draw-anything funk, and the Professor – Henry to his friends – taught me that if I kept at it, I would eventually draw another thing I liked. (There were many wretched and frustrated hours spent thinking otherwise. It is a poor strategy for art or anything else.)

A few days earlier I finished a certain druidic cat:

Druidic Cat, 3.5″ x 2.5″ Copics

Liam is a Tree Tending Instructor in the Many Wonders Woods. That’s right, another teacher! He teaches tree healing to young cat druids as well as forest sprites. Liam and Professor Tortoise were traded at illustratedatcs.com.

Thank you for stopping in! And here’s a progress slideshow!

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Romani Maiden and Spook the Cat, ATCs

Romani Maiden, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics, fine liners, gel pen

Her family discovered Nadya had the gift of fortune-telling at age nine when she convinced them not to take a ship that was lost in a violent storm two weeks after leaving port. But she always preferred horses to people, and by sixteen she discovered a gift for training horses.  Nadya is number 14 in the 100 Maidens Project and was made for a trade at illustratedatcs.com

The topic I chose from the ATC preference list for this trade was “gypsy or bohemian woman”, and in reading about “gypsies” I was reminded that some Roma consider this an insult. My imperfect understanding suggests “Romani” is the feminine adjective, and I hope anyone reading this post who knows otherwise will correct me.

Spook, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics and fine liners

Spook’s mother was the goddess Bastet and his sire a powerful Sphynx cat, companion to a ruling pharoah. Every October, this ancient and magical creature rises from a deep slumber and begins his search for thirteen worthy black kittens on which to bestow the magic of All Hallow’s Eve. Made for a Halloween swap at illustratedatcs.com.

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Reference photo.  Cat reference photo.

Hooray, you visited again! Or potentially for the first time! Thank you. ;)

Steampunk Elephant with Cat, Copics

Steampunk Elephant with Cat, 8.5″ x 11″ Copics with digital background

The topic is “Carry” at Illustration Friday. Another blue cat, this time a lovely creature called Delilah. As the eldest daughter, she will be inheriting the ancient elephant vehicle and the title Elephant Princess when her mother retires. She is both excited by, and dreading, the entire affair. Excited by the thought of riding the elephant in the parades, but dreading the procession of merchant cats and their tedious complaints about one another.

So glad I stopped before filling in the cat, because I think she makes a nice contrast with the very busy elephant. A bit too heavy on the outlines, but overall I think the steampunk elephant makes a worthy companion to the Cat Ship and Llama Genie Airship.

And one more thing. I’ve been listening to a great podcast while doing art over the last few weeks. It’s called The Dork Forest and is the podcast of comedian Jackie Kashian. She  talks to other comics and comic book people and movie people and loads of others about whatever it is they are really enthusiastic about. Very entertaining.  If you need a new thing, go see! Thanks for visiting!

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Elephant photo reference;  Siamese Cat Hybrid photo reference

Another Art Trading Card Post: Cat, Kingfisher, Dog

 

Purple Peach Peterbald Cat ATC, 2.5″ x 3.5″, Copics on Bristol

I finally decided I should document these tiny arts just like any other. Or, some of them at any rate. So here you have the latest three (I am most pleased with the Cat), with a slideshow for one of them. It’s funny to see them in a blog post. I’ve saved them at 5 inches and on my screen they are the exact size of the original. Still trying to decide whether to list them for trade or for sale in my Etsy shop.

Green Crested Kingfisher ATC, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics on Bristol

Orange Barclay, 2.5″ x 3.5″ Copics on Bristol

Barclay the dog got a bit overworked, and the lighter background was probably a better choice. I thought about leaving him out  but this blog was not intended as a best-of production. (For one thing, way fewer posts!) Both the cat and dog could use whiskers and I just got a new Uni-ball Signo white gel pen, which came out on top after rigorous testing at ArtTrader magazine. I skipped the whiskers for now but I did use it on their eyes to good effect.

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Meow Tai, Mai Tai for Illustration Friday

Meow Tai Mai Tai Cocktail, 8×10 with Copics, digital background

The topic is Refresh at Illustration Friday. And they’ve got a whole new look. I find it looks lovely but is not as user friendly as the old. If you agree or have issues and want to let them know, may I suggest you do so on the blog post announcing the new design.

I started off with a teacup, intending perhaps to cover it with odd creatures or add a silly beast swimming inside. But then the teacup became a cat cup and the cat told me, in no uncertain terms, that a Mai Tai or other liquored beverage would suit us all better in these trying times. I agreed.

Actually I was thinking Margarita, but fortunately someone more schooled in the bartending arts let me know the garnish I had chosen was all wrong for a Margarita. And anyway, MEOW TAI! The same knowledgeable fellow went on to disagree that the “Meow Tai” thing worked very well. I disagreed.

Went a little crazy beach bingo party neon with the background, but it seemed to fit. ;)

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Thanks for visiting! (Oh! And I wanted to drop this note for Illustration Friday folks. Be patient on the new IF page because the images load slower now, so if you scroll through a group, you may need to wait a moment for the next group to load. And as you may know, there are always hundreds of entries. /end PSA) :)

No Room at the Couch Part II, Copic Markers

Cow, Donkey, Cat, Dog, Shrew with Couch in Copics 8 x 10

The topic is “Nursery Rhyme” for Monday Artday. Until I looked it up just now to link it, I was sure it was “Fairytale”, so that will explain what comes next. (There could very well be a nursery rhyme about this story and I hope Mike at Monday Artday will be ok with that.) :D

McCalls Books, The Enchanted Princess & The House in the Forest

I wanted to do another pile of animals and I remembered a story called “The House in the Forest“, which was part of McCall’s Storytime Treasury series. Do you remember those? (It goes back to the 70s! But maybe you got some hand-me downs. Ours went to a second cousin. I may have to reacquire some.)

In any case, though I could not find a summary of the story (and my memory is a bit hazy), it was about a girl who lived in a house in the forest with all her animals. One night a magical guest disguised as a beggar came to test her, to see if she would feed herself before she fed her animals. She had a cow, a dog, a cat, a donkey… I think! She almost certainly did not have an elephant shrew in the original (but clearly should have). I don’t know if she had such a fancy couch. Probably not. I’m not sure there was any delivery service for one thing, and she wouldn’t have been able to afford it if so.

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Thank you for visiting! This is my second consecutive couch full of creatures. I was actually going to do these all in blue but decided on browns and I think blue would have been better. I also considered some fancy detail on the couch but worried that would take the focus off the critters. More outlandish experiments coming soon.

Cow face reference photo, sleeping cat reference.