I must say, it is fun to make up art as you go along. I was thinking to myself a few days ago that I really should get more finished pieces going. I love site graphics and refs, and those always bring me satisfaction to see them up, but a good finished piece is something you can really show off, and that's even better. I only do a couple a year! Art Fight always pushes me to do them, but of course, I didn't partake this year.
It's only partially on purpose that I've been drawing so much of my posh pink cat Prince on this trip. I do love him a lot of course, but honestly, it's mostly me practicing how I like to draw him! Cats have never come naturally to me artistically, because they're deceptively very ambiguously structured. All the face fluff, itself a challenge to get looking right, obfuscates their very mild features, and for a long time mine just came out looking like big fluffy sheets of paper. Prince is even trickier because of his bizarre swooshy hair. It sprouts and then flops over in a really adorable way, but I tend to make it too small and not fluffy enough. Point being, it's been such a trip getting here that I want to bask in being able to draw my kitty lad.
So this one came really late at night, as they all do. I was inspired by a Japanese-y sorta gown I saw on Tumblr because I love long, dangly sleeves. I also decided I wanted to practice some painting, so after lining it, I started painting what I thought was the shading. Playing with blend layers made the shading glow, and that felt much more mystical to me.
A couple hours of limited palette coloring, hue shifting, layer duplication, turning the shading into an aura, blending the aura, and making up a trippy galactic background, and this is how it turned out! Not what I initially intended, but absolutely in the running for my favorite piece all year. I finally got his hair right! The colors are neat! He's such a cutie.
Gotta think of how to top it, but later. I wanna peek at this some more first. Here's a transparent alt exclusive for the journal:
