The making of surfing cats

Two years ago as I was going through Ergotherapie, I had this idea to paint cats from various media, an idea that I kept sleeping on for quite some time due to logistical constraints relating having me push my adulting boulders.

By the time I became 28 years old, I ended up having various ideas that were waiting for their execution. I eventually could manage to get a tablet for a cheap price, enabling me to properly start digital drawing/painting. I said properly because all of my past attempts were a hit or miss. I do have some talent in creative areas though I never took any systematic paths or joined any courses. Nowadays many resources are readily available, minimizing the need to seek a school.

If were stalking the Backlog list in its earlier versions, you will notice that the original plan had a roster of 4 cats. I somehow added a 5th addition in Sylvester from the Looney Toons series. A week later in the process, I tried to add Doraemon since I had some space for an extra cat, in fact, the final product has space for 2 more characters I believe.

As of the making of that picture, my self-teaching knowledge was quite minuscule. My excitement made me start the drawing even though I haven't 100% finished the resources I was going through. This behaviour was quite taxing, but luckily for me, every mistake can be erased and rectified. Figuring out how to correct these felt refreshing, notably when I attempted to colour the entire thing at the end and when I tried to seek the proper brushing tools for each task.

Day 1 - 4

Drawing a wave proved to be challenging, so I tried to mimic some short YouTube videos on how to make one. Then I positioned the characters on the top layer. Drawing from home did not feel right so I did all this outside in a cafe.

Attempt 1!

Day 4 - 7

I began with Garfield and Neco-arc. The latter was quite easy since I had some experience drawing her, though the other inspired me to seek references. I learned then that there should be no shame in seeking these, in fact the average artist does not draw from memory. Luckily for me I found plenty, though I ended up drawing Garfield with sleepy eyes and a cheap smile. Sylvester was done on a first attempt, I literally haven't used the eraser when drawing him, I considered myself lucky then.
Seeking a reference for Tom was however problematic. The character went through many drastic design changes, its style debuted with more realistic touches then had to go more cartoonish as the time progressed. Although Tom played a role in a beach setting, only one of the classic era episodes had him swim in a surfing notion. I decided to simply have him positioned horizontally with a relaxed fashion. As for Doraemon, I got his proportions wrong during the first attempts, but there is nothing an eraser can't handle! Nyan on the other hand was much difficult in contrast to my expectations. I tried to sketch it in 3D using its 2D references, which was a bad idea. By the end of day 8, sketching was finished. Drawing Garfield and tom's paws was not an easy feat, Tom's took some chicken scratching, I gave up at some point when I did Garfield's and ended up giving him something basic.

Day 8 - 11

Time for a new upper layer. I had to reposition Garfield was I was not satisfied with his motion with respect to the wave. I had to correct some sketches down there. Going through this had me question whether I am using the right tools and parameters. I ended up reducing the strength of my pencil and it helped a lot. I ended up relocating Nyan to the top and redid its sketch. As I kept correcting, I had the idea of adding a breathing tube to Sylvester; in cartoon logic, having a breathing tube without access to oxygen still enabled the characters to breath underwater, Sylvester does not need a tank!

Holy! I am peaking!!!

Day 11 - 14

By this time, I learned that I committed the mistake of drawing the characters before finalizing the background, I took an hour to draw and finish the wave. Colouring was another story, as I had to familiarize myself with the brushing and pencil tools, since some erasers were quite realistic in a sense that they emulate the exact real-life behaviour, i.e. if you use a pencil eraser after applying a brush, it adds a liquidy effect to the colours. I kept going back and fourth through the layers to apply more corrections and colour objects.

Scrapped ideas

• Garfield holding a lasagna. I dropped the idea because I was lazy, no pun intended.
• Jerry surfing on Tom-board. Dropped the idea due to laziness, I could give myself the excuse that I exclusively wanted cats only, I shall however be transparent on the matter. I thought it would be cool since there is already a readily available reference for it in the episode Surf-Bored cat

I hate perfectionism

Remaster?

I hold lots of sentimental value to artwork, motivated by my perfectionism, I wish to remaster it one day. There is a whole lot here that could use some fixing, namely the anatomy of Neco-arc's clothes and colour usage in the artwork. Heck maybe even applying the scrapped ideas listed above and adding 2 new extra characters.