kitty

Slinky Kitty | A "What Was I Thinking?" Desk Drawer Project

Fact: animals adapt.

That was the inspiration for “Floyd”, the cat that swallowed a slinky toy — general character development that went from artboard to being placed into the desk drawer for years.

At the time, my goal was to branch out into self-authored illustration/story books. Or, by some miracle, get hired as a go-to illustrator for a top-tier publishing house (or any tier).

A lacked time, money, motivation, and a myriad of reasons benched the whole thing.

Kitty With Muffin Birthday Doodle

Another semi-super quick no-time-to-plan-out sketchy thing for a sister of a friend in NJ.

Kitty Caricature | From The Abandoned Projects Drawer

As part of my mid-to-late-2009 personal deliberation, months after returning from a memorable 10-day expedition to the US (Nutley, NJ, to be exact) and brainstorming ways to make big wads of cash on the side in order to fly back there! I had nothing to sell, no savings, and let’s not forget the 2008/09 financial collapse (and keeping my job was up-in-the-air)… no chance of a sudden lottery win, I’m sure (although, I’d hoped. Boy, did I hope!). So, what am I to do?

Here’s just one loony idea I seriously thought I could master: iPhones were a new thing at that time - why not learn about app development, create an app, make money selling that app, and live high on the hog? Easy, I’m sure. Turns out… NO! IT’S NOT! YOU IDIOT!

I then turned to finding ways to monopolise skills I’d honed over the years… Starlog Magazine had folded (so, cash for my cartoons was out)… somehow, the idea of drawing people’s pets was floated by my fan/friend in NJ (to whom was a veterinary technician).

Long story short, the below painting was THE first Kitty Kature (yes, THAT was I called them)(patent [not]pending).

And here are a couple more. I signed these with my alternate pseudonym “furbawl”.

There are a few more, I’m sure, lurking away in a dusty hard drive somewhere in the closet. I remember drawing up dogs… anyways, I find ‘em, I’ll add them to this post

Kitty With Bag On Head

This painting was inspired by a YouTube video (via facebook) of a kitty with a chip bag stuck on its head.

“Kitty Rampant In A Field Of Flowers Chasing A Butterfly With A Baggy On Its Head” (c.2010)

The original painting’s aspect ratio was more-or-less square-ish. I extended the canvas’ width a few years later, adding more background: flower fields; clouds; sky.

The kitty portrayed in the painting, and butterfly chase, was inspired by the kitty I animated in the “award-winning” FlipBook movie short, “The Clyde”.

(BTW: that Clyde animation was made on a 2G iPhone - drawn frame-by-frame.)