What's With All the Cats?

[tealin]

Well, it started with The Amazing Maurice [who is a cat] and his Educated Rodents... This is odd because I was rather unimpressed with the book when I first read it, feeling it the 'youngest' of Mr Pratchett's kids' books (and a little condescending) but the radio adaptation is just so fantastically done – easily better than the other series of plays. Anyway, drawings.
Trying to draw Keith (the 'stupid-looking kid') but he ended up looking a lot like Wart. Badness. Must keep trying.
A couple of attempts at Maurice ... though he kind of ended up looking like a feline Bigwig. Sigh.

Then I happened to find a recording of Cats at my usual used CD place. Say what you like about the show as a show (I'm not a big fan of the leotards and plotlessness, myself) but I love T.S. Eliot and Andrew Lloyd Webber* so the two of them together ... it makes for a great album, independent of the stage production. And I think it would be a cool idea for an animated movie; sort of a Fantasia-esque collection of more or less unrelated shorts, each in a different style ... dunno if it'd ever catch on, though. Hah, they'd probably split them all up and release them on obscure DVD titles to prop up sales, like a certain Fantasia 2006... oh, Disney.

Bustopher Jones and Macavity
*and cats, for that matter

I was by no means catted out by the end of the day, but I went to a coffee shop near my place with a friend to go sketch for a couple of hours and managed a couple of halfway-decent things.

'Dear the Pope,
You're my favourite Benedict...'*
Oh wait, no. That's not the Pope. He's just got the eyes, man, the eyes... To his right is Hypothetical Hispanic Girl. I grew up in California and then Utah, places both with a Hispanic population of decent size, and both prone to one of the last remaining shreds of culturally 'acceptable' racism in the USA. There was always a feeling of 'us and them' and since I was one of 'us' I never really had much to do with 'them.' However, since moving to Canada, and therefore being separated from the whole issue for a number of years, I've come to appreciate Latin culture more, now that I can look at it a little more objectively. And I want to learn to draw the people. Unfortunately, I don't have much reference up here. So there you go, an idealized and blatantly stereotypical Latina. [facepalm]

*credit goes to the incomparable Armando Iannucci for that one

I realise with a shudder that I am better at drawing on a Cintiq now than on paper ... THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yes cats do have a way of getting into our lives in just about as many ways as they can sometimes. As for the musical Cats, I loved it when I was younger (I didn't think the costumes or lack of plot were strange in the least), have two versions of it on video and cd, and was devastated when it went off broadway :/ (I was most definitely an odd kid... well I still am). Now, however I still think the music is pretty great, but I doubt I'd see it if it came to town again (due to thinking it is very weird). Anyway, I love your idea of an animated version and it made me remember that whenever I listened to the music from the show (before and after I saw it live) I always imagined actual cats singing instead of people.

Ahh! Sorry for the long post, but I also have to say that your art is AWESOME since I've had your site bookmarked for a while but have never commented here :).