Sneak Peeks and Sketches of Cats and Dogs!

And so I confess to having been a little rusty when I extricated my drawing materials from my art cupboard. It had been a long time since I'd put pencil to paper, let alone brushed the dust off my tubes of paint...


But, a promise is a promise, and I had to get back into my art if I was going to illustrate The Little Cat who thought she was a Dog!

And so, with a slight feeling of trepidation, I set myself up in my studio, took a deep breath and began to sketch out my ideas.
 

Rough sketches with my original Gypsy wall art sketch hiding at the top

I'd forgotten what a pleasure it is to sit quietly at my work table, pencils and paints laid out, and just focus on the here and now. The here and now being, in this case, attempting representations of my beautiful babies.

The illustrations are not supposed to be actual portrait paintings of my cats and dogs, but fun interpretations of them.

My inspiration for these began a long time ago...

Many years ago, back in Zambia, I had a fun moment when I decided to decorate our computer room with funky paintings of our cats and dogs, painted directly onto the wall, in gorgeous colours. I painted the frames onto the wall too and was pleased with the somewhat whacky effect!

Sadly, as our home changed, and we redecorated, we lost those paintings under fresh coats of paint in rather more sophisticated shades. But the idea had sown its seed in my head and I knew that, when the time came, this was how I would illustrate my book.

The good news is, we took photos of my whacky old wall art. The bad news is, it was in the early days of digital cameras... And the even worse news is, I only have prints left, the digital files having been lost aeons ago in a computer that went to join its fellow dinosaurs a long, long, time ago...

So, just for fun, and with a polite request to please excuse the terrible quality, here is the original wall art of Gypsy, The Little Cat who thought she was a Dog. (As cats do, she had many nick names, one of them being 'Monkey', hence the name on the picture.)

Gypsy wall art, 77 Kapele Street, Chingola

Yes, I told you the quality was bad...

And so, slowly, my illustrations took shape. I am certainly not the best artist in the world, of that I am very aware. But as my book was a labour of love and all about my children, it had to be illustrated by me and not a stranger. I hope, at least, that they are sweet enough to give added pleasure to the story!

Here's a sneak peek of the sketch and final illustration from Chapter 7: Fun, Games, Chaos and a Wanted Criminal.

From sketch to ink and water colour

And here's the finished work, as it appears in chapter 7.

Illustration from chapter 7

Okay, enough of the sneak peaks for now!

So yes, it was fun, but it was also very emotional. My cats and dogs were my children and were loved with every beat of my heart. I often found myself with tears in my eyes as I sorted through old photos and precious memories, to find pictures of them to use.

My book is filled with love, it is written with love and every stroke of my paint brush filled my illustrations with my love for my animals.

There is so much love in The Little Cat who thought she was a Dog that, when you hold it in your hands, you might even feel its heart beating...