Saturday, February 2, 2008

Sketchbook: Sleeping Cat

I'm away from home on an extended research trip, so it's going to be a long while 'til I see my cats again. Luckily for me, I managed a quick sketch of one of them asleep before I left. Lo, the cuteness:



(NB: If you click on the image, it will become enormous, too big to view conveniently on a laptop screen, I'm afraid. Before Isaac makes fun of me about this, I want the record to show that this image was scanned with a new piece of equipment, and I haven't figured out how to scale things down appropriately yet. I tried to keep it small, I really did!)

8 comments:

Darcy said...

My comments to both artist and model! I love the kitty eye mask and the tail that functions almost as a throw pillow or kitty wrap.

Darcy said...

Ergh-- that was "compliments," not "comments," that I meant to be leaving.

Isaac said...

That gives me an idea: we should configure Blogger so that there's a "compliments" section after each post. I mean, we like constructive criticism, but we like praise even more...

Now that I'm studying Mike's notes on the sketch, it occurs to me that Gittel will probably rest easier now that he's in the U.K. and can no longer scratch her with his pens while she's sleeping...

Mike said...

To Darcy: Many thanks! Of course, Gittel's sister Shayna is even better equipped in the tail department, since her tail is long enough to function as an eyeshade itself.

To Isaac: Heh! Naturally I meant the scratching of the pen ON THE PAPER, you doofus, but I duly accept the implicit chastisement of ambiguity. (Just what I needed: more incentive to be pedantically precise in my prose...)

Ben Towle said...

That's a great looking cat sketch. It started me thinking: I've got a ton of sketches of my cat... probably pretty much everyone who has a cat and a sketchbook has some good cat sketches... therefore, I wonder if it'd be fun to put together a "I can haz cat drawings?" sketchbook mini at some point--maybe for SPX or something. I may be in touch to beg for cat drawings..

Mike said...

It's the minicomic that edits itself!

Nice idea, Ben; I remember some great drawings of cats by John Porcellino that Isaac showed me some years ago. Just a few lines, but good ones.

(My new favorite LOLcat-style image is the one posted to the Kitten vs. Shark thread in the Comics Medium forum at tcj.com/messboard...We have Robin Bougie to thank for the initial scan, and some other genius (I forget who) for the LOLifying.)

Ben Towle said...

If this mini idea progresses beyond my theorizing about it (a 50/50 chance, admittedly) I'll give you a shout.

Regarding LOL-cats, that shark thing is definitely a classic and I sense great untapped LOL-cat potential there.

There are some good comics-related LOL-cats here:

http://slg-news.livejournal.com/192285.html

Re. Porcellino: He draws a great cat, but the "All Sam" issue of King Cat that's all about his childhood dog, Samantha, is truly amazing, heart wrenching, beautiful. It's a COL-dog thing I guess, 'cause I damned near cried out loud when I read it.

Mike said...

Nice link! I like your "I already has inker," but I don't know how on earth you can manage to ink with a cat on your lap! (Maybe it was just a pose for the picture?) In my experience cats + drawing table = trouble.

That "My's comic is arrive" one is also pretty hilarious...I recognize the comic pictured from yet another Comics Journal messboard thread...