Aby-a-Day – 24 Augusti: Salta Katter (Cartoon Tuesday

Back when I was in SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) classes, they had a really cool poster of the Salta Lakritsfigurer cat. It was created by Tommy Hallgren, a Swedish graphic artist who designed several Swedish candy brands, among other things.

A couple of weeks ago, Björn found a framed print of the same poster at the second-hand store – signed by the artist!

Izaak, of course, had to “help” me take a photo of our poster.

This is how the Salty Cat looks on the actual candy boxes. But take a close look at the box on the right.

See the holes? Yep…Alfred, with his fierce belief that anything in plastic is food, bit the box.

Of course, Zak had to “help” me with the candy boxes, too.

Aby-a-Day – 13 Juli: Izaak as Baby Tuk Tuk (Cartoon Tuesday)

Two weeks ago, I posted my drawing of Lorelai as Sisu the last dragon. Well, there’s another creature, sort of an armadillio/pillbug/hedgehog mashup called Tuk Tuk. And in one of the early scenes where he’s a baby, he reacts to a cat in a way that really reminded me of Izaak. this is the first sketch; I liked it so much I was almost going to keep it as the outline, and skip the inking stage.

But I did the ink anyway, just to see how it looked. As it happens, it came out even better than the sketch did!

<

Next, I filled in the base colours, underneath the ink.

Which looks like this when finished.

Then, over the ink, I did the shell and fur textures. This is just the textures…

…this is with ink…

…and finally, with the undercolour.

Add some whiskers and eyeshine, and we’re ready to go into Photoshop.

I added the hand and the background there, along with a bit more eye details. But there was one more thing I wanted to do.

Finally, I added some lighting effects. I really like the way this one turned out!

And here’s a video of the Procreate process, which you can watch in Flickr. There are a LOT of layers on this one – fifteen in total!

Aby-a-Day – 29 Juni: Rory and the Last Dragon (Cartoon Tuesday)

We finally got to see Raya and the Last Dragon on Disney+, and I was absolutely mesmerised by the dragon Sisu, voiced by Awkwafina. She reminded me so much of Lorelai that I had to draw her as the dragon. Here is my first sketch.

Followed up by the ink outline.

I did colour layers both underneath and over the ink outline, and then covered up some of the black lines with matching colours.

This is the finished Procreate drawing, sans background, before shifting to Photoshop.

Add a background and some outer glow on some of the layers…and here is the finished piece.

As always, here’s the video of the Procreate drawing process. Click on the image to watch the video in Flickr.

Aby-a-Day – 6 April: Kiipi and her Kitten again – Work in Progress (Cartoon Tuesday)

I have been working on the drawing of Kiipi and her kitten.

This is the ink outline with the base colour filled in.

Without the ink, the colour alone has a rather neat “paint by numbers” effect.

And here is the ink, colour and shadows. I just need to add the fut texture and background, and this one is finished!

Aby-a-Day – 17 Februari: Wordless Wednesday (Because someone asked…)

Aby-a-Day – 30 Januari: Off the wall (Swedish Saturday)

These photos are from May 2017. Before Logan died, we had entered him in a cat show in Göteborg. Since we had already paid for the entry, we took Jacoby instead. But he was not allowed into the show because the entry staff misread his vaccination records (they said he wasn’t up to date on his jabs, but he was). It was the same trip where Jake explored Göteborg’s future.

So, we went for a walk around Göteborg with Jake. At Östra Larmgatan 13, we found an interesting black and white mural.

We were particularly enchanted by this cat surfing/skateboarding on a fish.

Oh, everybody’s a critic.

This is the whole mural – it’s actually a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Vans shoes! (Photo from Google Earth)

Aby-a-Day – 26 Januari: Misty watercolour memories (Cartoon Tuesday)

This is by no means a cartoon, but I wanted to share this ethereal watercolour of Bugsie that was done by her friend Arlven Leonardor. I think it captures Bugsie’s spirit perfectly.

Aby-a-Day – 17 November 2020: Bruno Liljefors’ cats (Cartoon Tuesday)

Last Saturday, Björn went to the second-hand store and discovered this amazing replica painting by Swedish artist Bruno Liljefors. It’s called “A Cat and a Chaffinch” and was painted in 1885. I was surprised to discover how old it is…it looks a lot more modern!

From Wikipedia: “Liljefors was a pioneer at a time when wildlife art was still emerging from its association with scientific depiction and taxidermy. He also set a standard of identification with the landscape that substantially influenced the development of wildlife art in the twentieth century.” Liljefors mainly painted wildlife and hunting scenes, but he also did a few cats.

Liljefors was a life-long hunter, and many of his works explored the predator-prey relationship. Interestingly, he also did sequential story paintings, and is considered one of Sweden’s earliest comics creators! So this post may not have any Abyssinians or Singapuras…but it is kind of a cartoon!

Aby-a-Day – 6 Oktober 2020: Paws Across the Sea (Cartoon Tuesday)

I know, I know…I dropped off the face of the world for a week. Part of that was due to me getting a new medication that was kicking my butt until I got used to it. The other part is that last Monday I got this email from Iris:

Your former region (Region 1) and your adopted region (Region 9) are joining forces for a virtual qualifier show for the CFA International Top Cat Challenge, and Sharon asked me to help with promotional copy and/or a theme. What I came up with is really crying out for some kind of sketch that we can use on the flyer and platform. It’s “Paws Across the Sea.” I don’t have any visual ideas other than two paws reaching toward each other with an ocean in between, but I thought maybe you could come up with something better. Please let me know if you’d be willing to work on this. The time frame is short but not an emergency. . . If you could do something by the weekend I think that would work.

My mind instantly went to vintage Disney “It’s a Small World” art. I made a globe/earth that featured the US Northeast and Europe and then made the quick sketch above to map out the international breed representatives. I had many ideas, but finally decided on featuring a Siamese, a Russian Blue, a Maine Coon (Marlin, the NEMO mascot), a Scottish Fold, and a Singapura. I had wanted to include a Japanese Bobtail, but I realised that if you couldn’t see the tail, it might not be clear what breed it was.

I started by making a generic cat sketch. I enlarged it for Marlin, made it smaller for the Singapura, and stretched it out for the Siamese.

I made sketches for all five breeds, and combined them on one layer.

Then I did the ink outline in Procreate.

I did the undercolour layer beneath the ink layer in Procreate as well. Colouring tortoiseshell-and-white cats is difficult, but fun!

My best fur brushes are in Photoshop, so I moved to that to work on the texture layer.

Here are all three layers combined.

Then I add the whiskers, eyeshine and shadow, and voilá: a graphic for an international virtual cat show!

A slight postscript: I couldn’t fit an Abyssinian into the graphic…but who’s that holding the Siamese’s other paw?

Aby-a-Day – 18 Augusti 2020: Seasonal Abyssinians (Cartoon Tuesday)

I was reminded of the two Abyssinian drawings I did for the Fall and Spring issues of the Abyssinian Cat Club of America. I made some marble magnetswith the images and just noticed them again the other day.

When I drew my cartoons before getting the iPad, I would do the sketches, trace them in ink, and then scan them and put them together in Photoshop.

I also had some inkbrush pens that I was experimenting with. Since the cover of the newsletter was printed in black and white, I wanted to do a different sort of springtime drawing. Plus, the snowdrops coming up through the snow is one of my favourite signs of spring. On the final version, I added the shadows and added an “icy” filter to the background.

I immediately knew what I wanted to do for the fall cover. Sometimes I would do several versions of a face or other parts to get the best drawing assembled.

I remember drawing these leaves. I sketched a few different styles and then traced them over and over again to get the look I wanted. It’s so much easier now that I have leaf brushes in Procreate and Photoshop! Even so, there’s something satisfying about drawing on paper…Someday I should finish the series with summer and winter.

Aby-a-Day – 27 Juli 2020: Turning garbage into gold (Hipstamatic Monday)

Even with the impressive camera on the iPhone 11 Pro, it’s still possible to take a bad photo. Despite the auto-focus and auto-lighting technology, the camera still occasionally makes a mistake. The other day, the lenses somehow centered on the wrong thing, and some photos of Dashiell came out dark and underexposed.

This is something Hipstamatic is great for. Look at how much clearer Dash is now. You can actually see his eyes!

These two shots of Lorelai running almost look like they were taken with bad film! I have no idea what happened, but the auto-correct didn’t work at all.

Hipstamatic doesn’t magically make them good photos, but it makes them better, and it turns them into art. Which is better than just having a bad photo, I guess.

Aby-a-Day – 20 Juli 2020: Still more photos of Lorelai and Io (Hipstamatic Monday)

Since it was fun last week, I thought I’d post some more Hipstamatic photos of Lorelai and Io from this past weekend.

I love the variety of styles in Hipstamatic. Of course, I have been using it for over ten years now, so I’ve amassed a large collection of films and lenses.

You can also edit regular photos after the fact in Hipstamatic now, and turn a photo you might trash into something artistic.

I love this one. It changed all the greens to red, and desaturated everything else. I really like how this one turned out.

You can get some fun effects.

In the Hipstamatic app, you can apply more than one film and lens, and get results you could never get using the Hipsta camera.

I like this one, too. Nice shade of green.

Rory saying goodbye to Io. I hope they made kittens.

This was a blah photo of Rory on Björn’s shoulder. Now it’s cool and interesting.

This is another of my favourites in this batch.

It’s interesting that one combination turns greens red, while another filter turns the reds green.

Rory and Angel when we finally got home. My girls.

Aby-a-Day – 30 Juni 2020: Hall of fame (Cartoon Tuesday)

I was so proud of my portrait of the Maltese Dashiell, I wanted to get an art print made with it. So, I went to Japan Photo‘s website (they’re a Swedish photo printing company, like Shutterfly) website and ordered something. I had to do it in Swedish, but I managed all right. One nifty feature they have is allowing you to see your artwork on a wall in a virtual room. That really helped me figure out what size to get. I thought about getting it printed on canvas, but ended up getting it printed on a metal plate.

Today, Björn and I hung it in our entryhall, above the mirror.

It works really well there, I think. It’s next to the 1965 print of an Abyssinian that bears a striking resemblance to Alfred.

Finally, my vintage Australian Cat From Outer Space movie poster (that…apparently I have never posted about. Oops) completes our entry hall. I think Lorelai approves of our arrangement.

I almost forgot! On the opposite wall, above the keybox, we have this small Abyssinian print I picked up years ago; it was done by Braldt Bralds, a Dutch artist. I’ve also seen this print as a greeting card.

I guess now I need to find a Singapura print to really complete the ensemble.

Aby-a-Day – 26 Maj 2020: Prints and sketches for the ‘rents (Cartoon Tuesday)

I had intended a better post for today, but we’re all well knackered from the trip to the vet…wrangling five cats on the bus is exhausting! But I had ordered some prints of my recent art projects to send to my mom and dad in the States, and they came today, so I got them ready to mail them tomorrow. My mom hasn’t got a computer (well, she has, but it’s on dial-up and is still running Netscape, so…), and I don’t know if my dad still has his since he’s in assisted living.

Anyway, I put each set into a greeting card, and as always, I did a little cat sketch in each card. I had a certain cat in mind on each sketch…can you tell who I drew?

Aby-a-Day – 8 Maj 2020: *Tips hat* M’leggie (Photoshop Friday Flashback)

10 years ago today, I posted this photo of Jacoby’s amusing leggie pose.

But what I never posted was a Picasso-inspired artistic version of this photo. So, here it is.

Aby-a-Day – 10 April 2020: More PHOTOSHOPPED cats (Photoshop Friday)

Continuing last week’s Photoshop Friday, I did some more Photoshop challenges on the Facebook group This Cat is PHOTOSHOPPED. I also posted the meme about the green screen dress Queen Elizabeth wore when she gave her COVID-19 speech last Sunday.

And, of course, I had to give Her Majesty a Three Jake Moon shirt.

When I saw this photo of Mya the Sphynx, I had only one thought and one thought only. Isn’t she precious?

Jezebel’s original photo had her on her scratching post. I thought she needed a real tree.

THIS is one of my favourites from this week. When I saw this chonky girl, my brain instantly went to…well, Manchester Township, New Jersey. One member said that it should be a poster. It’s always interesting to work in greyscale.

Athletic Yoda reminded me of a trapeze artist.

This face! I had to do this.

This cat’s name is Chandler, so I had to do this…

I didn’t think that sofa looked “Central Perk” enough, so I used this one instead. Much better!

Then Björn made a comment…eh, it was inevitable.

Harley and Powder’s human wanted them ‘Shopped onto a rock album. Hey, no problem.

I had saved this photo of the bear and was waiting for a cat to fill it. I thought it was Mia…but I wasn’t so sure after I finished it. But her human loved it, so that’s good enough for me.

Peso is a semi-celebrity in the group – I mean, look at those eyes! Behold, the majestic Peso Owl in flight.

Willie’s human wanted him Photoshopped riding something “bad ass”…well, what’s more bad ass than Joust? This was a lot of fun…I learned how to pixilate photos with this one. It’s always nice when one of these challenges teaches me a new trick.

Then, someone in the comments posted a photo of Putin, shirtless, riding a horse, and said, “Someone please put him on the horse with Putin!” Challenge accepted.

Gilligan reminded me of an ancient Egyptian cat, so I put him in the temple at Abydos. Not super happy with how it turned out…but Gillgan’s human loved it. Again, that’s kind of the point.

This is Colonel Gentleman. His original photo looked like he was sitting behind a desk, so… Fun fact: the base I used was a photo of Socks sitting behind Bill Clinton’s Resolute Desk.

Another person posted her adorable foster kittens Meeps, Sully and Toque….it was the obvious choice. I wish Toque’s photo had been larger, though.

Another obvious choice. I had fun with the bubbles.

Daniel had to have his back leg shaved for an operation, and his owner wanted us to cover it up. I used a photo of a peacock I took at Borås Djurpark last summer, and used feather brushes to fill in spots.

This is today’s project. Bailey’s human wanted him to turn his blep against evil. This was the most evil I could think of.

<

Well, either that, or this. Potato, potahto.

Aby-a-Day – 31 Mars 2020: How to Train Your Singapura…finished! (Cartoon Tuesday)

As you remember from last week’s post, I started working on a drawing of Izaak as Toothless the Night Fury from the How to Train Your Dragon films. The first step was the second, clean ink layer. I did something a little different than I usually do, though; I only used black for the outline on his eyes and his tail attachment. On the rest of his outline, I used dark brown, and on his collar, I used blues and silvers. And I finally worked out how the eyedropper tool works in Procreate! You’ll notice I didn’t outline the bones on the wings. I actually did, but then copied them to their own layer. I had an idea.

I did the undercolouring in two layers: one of the basic shades, and another on top of that with the eyes and collar colour and the wings and prosthetic tail. I found a marvellous texture brush in Procreate that was perfect for the wings and the tail attachment.

Here are the two undercolour layers combined…and then with the ink layer.

Then I worked on the wing details. These are the outlines from the inking…with some transparency, layer enhancements, and…finally, a use for the plastic wrap filter!

Then I switched to the background. I found a blank background from the movie art and deleted the bits in the scene I didn’t want. Then I added a paint layer to adapt the scene to what I wanted.

Then I combined those and ran a few filters.

But…when I switched from Procreate to Photoshop and put “Zakless” on the background, I discovered there was a transparency problem.

You can’t always see the gaps in colour when you’re working in Procreate on a white background. But I came up with an easy fix.

I made a quick solid, opaque figure on a separate layer between the background and the colour layers. This would actually turn out to save me time later on.

Problem solved! Now it’s time for the collar and fur texture.

I did the collar first. I actually used a photo of Alfred’s collar and changed the hue and lightness to get Zak’s blues and lightened the opacity to get the braid pattern. This is on a layer between the second ink and the undercolour. I could have done a similar thing with his tags…but I liked the way I drew them.

Next, the fur texture. You’ve all seen my fur brushes, and I didn’t do anything new or unusual…except this: I found a wicked cool scale brush along with my feather and fur brushes. Never needed to use a scale brush before, and I really like the effect.

Here’s the finished Zakless, including whiskers and eyeshine.

And here he is with the background.

Add his shadow (made using a copy of the opaque layer I had already made, just black, distorted, translucent and blurred)…and voilà! Here is the finished Zakless!

Or is it? After I thought I’d finished him, I got a brainwave on how to improve the eyeshine…with the plastic wrap filter!

I think it looks more realistic. I also added a tiny drop shadow to the collar. It’s barely noticeable, but it adds a bit of depth, which I like. Yes…I think he’s finished now.

Aby-a-Day – 23 Juli: Louis Wain (Cartoon Tuesday)

In London, we spent a good bit of time looking for treasures in second-hand shops. I was on the hunt for anything regarding the early Abyssinians, and I figured England might be the place to find it. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any Victorian-era cat breeding books, but I did find a print by the pre-eminent cat artist Louis Wain. There were a couple of different ones, actually, but I thought the limerick was charming:

A girl, who was dreadfully flustered,
Helped Ma-in-law to a spoonful of mustard!
Her Ma-in-Law stared,
Asked how she dared!
But she told her she thought it was custard.

The print was marked as being from 1910.

When I got it home and framed it, however, I discovered it wasn’t just a print…it was a page from a book! And the other side was also very cute…but there’s a mark on it that I Photoshopped out when I scanned it, so I kept the limerick side out. Louis Wain is known for more than just his drawing…he also had some sort of mental issues (possibly dementia or schizophrenia; mental illness wasn’t as sophisticated 100 years ago), and, even though he was put in an asylum, he kept drawing cats that became more and more psychedelic as his illness progressed. In the filigree decoration on the back of page seems to presage his future drawings.

He was an incredibly prolific cat artist, and his work was published in books and as postcards. I found this very Aby-looking fellow online as a part of series of postcards celebrating “taking the waters” at Harrogate, one of the first ever “spas” where people went every summer for sulphur treatments. The treatments involved both drinking and soaking in the water, and Wain did four series of six cards each as souvenir/advertising. After finding the Abyssinian “sulphurer,” I became fascinated by these little glimpses into history…probably because, as a kid my dad tricked me into drinking sulphur water from the Lithia water fountain in Ashland, Oregon. I know what it tastes like!

In researching Louis Wain’s work (I was unable to find my images online anywhere, believe it or not, so I don’t know what book my page came from), I also came across this happy little guy. I know know much about him…but doesn’t he look like Izaak!? It actually kind of reminds me of that sketch of Zak I did back in March.

Aby-a-Day – 9 Juli: Art in Camdentown (Cartoon Tuesday)

Our first full day in London, we went to the Camden Market. Neither Björn nor I had even managed to make it there on our previous visits to the city. But one booth in particular caught my attention: An artist, Carlotta Mascolo. She said she would do a drawing upon request.

Well, how could I resist? I showed her this photo of Jacoby wearing his Red Sox gear after Game 6 of the 2013 World Series. Since we were in London to see the Red Sox, it seemed appropriate.

This is the drawing Carlotta did of Jake. I absolutely love it. It’s perfect, especially the expression on his face.

I also bought a couple of her printed cards as well. I mean, how could I resist this illustration of a “cat show”? I’m pretty sure the bottom left cat is an Abyssinian.

And this one of a dad-cat carrying his kittens up to bed…so sweet. I am so glad we noticed this little booth amongst all the shops in Camden Market!

Aby-a-Day – 2 Juli: Sketches in London (Cartoon Tuesday)

Even though the posts have been coming regularly every day, Björn and I have been in London since last Thursday evening. We came mainly because I got tickets for both games of the two-game series of MLB games between the Yankees and the Yankees, the first time major league baseball has been played in Europe. Even though Boston was the official home team for both games, and despite there being more Red Sox fans in attendance than there were Yankees fans…the Evil Empire ended up winning both games. But it’s been a lot of fun, and we’ll be home Thursday afternoon.

When we weren’t at the games, of course, we have been doing a lot of sightseeing and shopping. One necessary stop, of course, was Harrod’s. Whilst in the souvenir shop, there was a display of pens, 3 for the price of 2. Whilst Björn hunted for pens, I decided to test them out on the provided pads.

First, I drew Jacoby…but I didn’t like the way it turned out; the ears were too small. So I tried again, with Izaak. This one turned out much better. Still not as good as I’d have liked…but then, the pen I was using wasn’t the best.

Harrod’s is known for its souvenir shopping bags. I bought a rather generic one back in 2002 the last time I visited…but this time I found something much, much better! And, not to mention, Cartoon Tuesday-appropriate.

One last thing: at the first baseball game, we were sitting just in front of a Red Sox fan, Charles, from Connecticut who had come all the way to London to see a game. After the first inning, he started sketching, saying he was “a bit bored.” He was a wonderful artist! Here is the drawing he did of the game; Björn is in it, but I am not…the lines to buy merchandise were insane, so I sucked it up and went to stand in those. For four innings! If you ever happen upon this post, Charles…it was great to meet you!