First image of 2014 (even though I started it in 2013). This continues my series of Animal Behaviour illustrations and is part of the fourth collection. The idea came out of a strange play on words, which I was in fact discussing with my Creative Thinking students. The fact that English has words within words can make a creative aspect in depicting the dual meanings.
In this case the definition, like a lot of my drawings was born from many forms, but typically started with a memory of a past event. I used to have two cats when I lived in Newcastle. The cats were lovely companions, but together were riotous. Many a thing was destroyed with their antics, and so in many senses of the word, they were truly cat-astrophic animals.
To portray this in an illustration, I thought on and had an idea that the most catastrophic thing that could happen (many times depicted in Warner Brothers cartoons), is the big red button. What would happen if that button was in fact pressed? The idea that the cool cat would have a cheeky smile on his face whilst cooly hovering over the button, seemed like an ideal candidate. I also chose the Sphinx cat, as I love the wrinkles over fur, and in many a cat person's eyes, they are a catastrophe in themselves.
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Initial rough sketch for development work. First time I've done sketch work at A1+ size. Was a good practice, so I can look at the shapes more in the body form.
The final pencil render placed into Photoshop, with the white mask layer added.
Always start with the eyes, as if the eyes don't work, then the whole image will be weak.
Slowly work down the body. This time the effect was to give strong shadow and highlight. The reference images I found helped a lot to give the overall effect.
Near completion.
