Okay, maybe not so much...

“In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.”
- English Proverb

I'm currently resurrecting a number of decade-old spot illustrations based on my kitten logo that I had intended to use as a sort of branding - on letterheads, business cards, invoices, etc. Here are two of them:I'd even started paintings for all of them, but got sidetracked by other work at the time and never came back to them. I probably won't use them for their original purpose, but I thought they might make for some more good digital practice.

Hey..have a pleasant Fathers Day if I don’t see you again. If you know what I mean.

About a year ago, a bedraggled cat started hanging around our house. Even though Spouse has severe cat allergies, he's the one who noticed her, and noticed she appeared to be starving. I bought her food and then ended up taking it to the shelter, which turned out not to be quite as "no-kill" as I had thought, because the cat was in such poor health.

And then she showed up at our door again. Which I thought was a miracle! She had traversed miles and miles and two rivers to return! (You can read more about the "miracle" and other posts about the cat here: http://aprilhenry.livejournal.com/tag/cat .)

And I found out that the cat did have an "owner" (to use the term loosely), a guy who lives nearby, a guy who just let the cat out to fend for itself whenever he went away on business. No food, no water. Around this time, my mom christened the cat Yo Yo.

And so I bought her food and special warmth-conserving pillows and looked at cat houses and finally got one and then in November, when we were worried about the winter to come, the cat stopped showing up at our door. She had, I figured, died. Which made sense. She's old, she has broken teeth, she's got a heart murmur.

But I guess no one has told the cat that she should by rights be dead. Because she showed up again on Sunday. Where has she been for the past seven or eight months? She's not telling.

A sketchbook character based on an actual experience. I may develop this guy further.

(A little background: Aleks, the guy who is overseeing our bathroom remodel had to leave town due to a death in a family. He left me with one of his coworkers, Yeager, who did the demo work. I had heard them speaking in Russian, but Yeager had also been introduced to me in English.)

Me (speaking very rapidly): Ok, I have to go now, and I just want to let you know that there is kind of a stray cat that hangs out in the back yard, well, she's not really a stray, she has an owner, but he doesn't feed her, so we do, because we can't just let her starve to death, anyway, try to keep her out of the house, but if she comes in it's not a big deal, just shoo her out eventually.

Yeager (smiling hesitantly): You hev ket?

My latest piece for the Wonderland series. Many people Have been asking for him…

He will soon be available on Pendants and Rings

The illustration will be centered on the paper, with 1″ white border on each side right to left, and half inch top to bottom.

It will be signed and dated by the artist, and shipped in a clear plastic bag and a stiff unbendable envelope. Buy Now $15

Wonder Cat is a lovely striped cat wearing a top hat. Beautiful vibrant colors. Inspired by the Cheshire Cat character in one of my favorite children book stories, Alice in Wonderland.

This glass pendant is horizontal 11/4″ wide by 7/8″ tall.

It comes with a 16″ ultra Fine 1.2mm Silver Plated Snake Chain Necklace with Lobster Clasps.

I make all of my jewelry by hand.

This pendant is not waterproof. Please do not wear while swimming or taking a shower.

All jewelry is packaged in a cute little box.  Only $23. Buy Now

A couple quick ones from this morning's sketches, both appropriate for today's Illustration Friday topic. And in doing so, I happily got a chance to try out my new Col-Erase pencils:
While sketching these little guys I couldn't help but think back to our cat's kitten days. Here's a pic of our little guy before he put on fifteen pounds and developed a deep and abiding fear of the laundry basket.
He's since grown up to be a good-natured and laid-back seven-year-old, but, my oh my, those kitten days were fun!

I wanted to create something bright and cute, but with a slight dark edge. The little fairy girl’s name is Neon and her cat’s name is Maxie. Together they plan on taking over the world. Neon and Maxie go on all kinds of adventures.

It seems I've got myself in a bit of a 'cat rut' due to Illustration Friday. I thought this page from my book dummy worked well for this week's theme:Hope everyone's having a great holiday weekend!