05 February 2018

2017 Christmas Presents - Reece Cat

Ink and marker on smooth Bristol, 2.5x3.5", Completed December 2017

And here we finally have it, the last cat in the "You as a Cat!" series of ACEOs I made last December as Christmas presents for my closest friends and family.  This one features yet another good friend from high school (and grade school), Reece!  Honestly, now that I've posted and talked about all the pieces I drew in this series...this cat might be my favorite of the lot.  The wide eyes and gaping mouth make such a fun, excited, even surprised expression (it's the most animated face of all the cats I drew) and I'm extremely pleased with how all the colors work together, they remind me of a rainy spring day in Seattle.  Nostalgic.
  

I think there's a very good chance that the reason I love this final drawing so much is that it is the culmination of all the planning, experimentation, and practice that went into making the previous 13 cats.  I chose this extreme pose based on Reece's personality, but would I have been able to pull it off as well if this had not been the last ACEO I completed?  Maybe not, but since I KNEW it was the last piece on my list, that could have given me a boost, too!  After all, this was the fifth drawing I did on the last day I worked on this project.  The drawing had the potential to suffer due to my exhaustion, but instead it came out one of the best entries in the series!

It took me all the way to February to share all these Christmas presents.  I definitely intend to do more art presents this year (in fact, I have already done a birthday present in January!) so I hope you'll look forward to them throughout 2018 (^^)