First I would love to say a warm "hello" to all my friends from the art world and the real world who stop by to view this blog. Blogging is not an art form that comes easily or naturally to me. Growing up with four nosey sisters teaches you not to put your thoughts down in writing. So here I am, challenging myself and knowing full well that I will one day recieve a generous roasting for my efforts by a well meaning family member, or six.
Many of you know Midnight and Sunshine, my regular cat characters. For those of you that don't I'll offer a quick introduction. My very first Midnight ACEO (art card) was created in April 2007 (or was it March?). It was, at best a rough and free flowing, not entirely well thought out cartoon of a white cat with long ears. Back then I didn't know that Midnight would become the thing for which I am best known. My first four Midnight ACEOs were created on the same rainy afternoon in about 2 1/2 hours. To the left you will see one of these four. Looking back you can really see the progression of Midnight from rough to polished.
This one to the right was created a few months later. You'll notice in this piece that I have begun working out Midnights body proportions (which I occasionally alter to suit the scene) and I'm working out a more pleasing face for Midnight.
Enter Sunshine. Midnight continued to evolve and get up to typical cat antics, but there came I time that I realized Midnight needed a friend. I knew right away that I wanted to make his friend a female and to contrast with Midnight I wanted to make her a black cat. The only problem was what to call her. Several possibilities existed, but none of them fit right in my mind. One day when I was thinking about what to call Midnights girl, I popped into my KATS group to see what my artist friends were creating and looked at the new art thread, where the answer was staring me in the face. Sandrine Curtis (who draws and paints phenominal cats btw) had posted a drawing of her black cat Sunshine. I thought the name was perfect, so I asked her if I could name Midnights girl Sunshine and was thrilled when she gave me her blessing. Thus Sunshine was born.
Since her creation Sunshine has evolved the same way Midnight did. She has become more stylized and in my mind has developed her own personality. I have changed the way I out-line her body from Sun-patches to complete white outines, as I have tried both methods and I like the way that this makes her pop, and gives uniformity to the pieces where Midnight and Sunshine appear together. This is my first fantasy ACEO starring Midnight and Sunshine. It was fun to create, and though I intend to keep Midnight and Sunshines characters like real house-cats I might create these whimsical fairy tail pieces once in a while for fun.
I am currently working on my first kids book which I plan on publishing as soon as I can get it all together. Having never written a book before I didn't know how long it would take and believed it would be finished by now. Then again I didn't really take in account that I still need time to create an income, market my work and also have a personal life. But believe me, although its happening more slowly then I would like, it is coming together. I have four more illustrations to do, and two or three I want to re-do before I can be totally happy with the results. Then I will enter the production stage. I'm quite excited about my story. I have been priviledged to have such amazing friends in the art community, three of whom have read and critiqued it for me. At this point I would love to thank Jo Lynch, Janice Rickard and Norma Yue for their wonderful feedback. Hold on guys...its still coming, and I will keep you posted!
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