Ittie Bittie Kitties...Again

[GHarris]

On ‎7‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 4:16 PM, Corporea said:

I wants them, my precious. Don't tell my kitties or they will hates me for findings new furballs to love on.

 

You know, I've always found with my loafing cats they tuck their front paws under their bellies and have missing paw syndrome. 

 

This is known as being a "catloaf" in our household!

[strawhat]

On 7/17/2018 at 7:11 AM, TaleSpinner said:

 

Hair, fairly normal housecats.

Normal?

 

Not Maine Coons, then.  

[TaleSpinner]

On 7/18/2018 at 7:06 PM, strawhat said:

Normal?

 

Not Maine Coons, then.  

 

No, not Maine Coons.  Fairly petite ones actually, at least compared to Archer who I did last year for DarkSword:

 

[klarg1]

So, having weighed the risks of exposure to the eventual recipient for these sculpts (they are gifts), I have decided to out myself as TaleSpinner's client, so he doesn't have to dance around that part for now.

 

@TaleSpinner Thanks for taking on this commission for me! Things look great so far.

 

At the risk of disappointing @strawhat, I'll say that the sitting cat is a ~12lb brown tabby, while the loaf is a slightly smaller black and white short-hair house cat. Both were shelter cats, so I can't tell you much more detailed information than that.

[strawhat]

13 hours ago, klarg1 said:

At the risk of disappointing @strawhat, I'll say that the sitting cat is a ~12lb brown tabby, while the loaf is a slightly smaller black and white short-hair house cat. Both were shelter cats, so I can't tell you much more detailed information than that.

I was just funnin'.

 

Maines just have so much personality.  Some might say "too much"...

[haldir]

Fantastic work so far, Ts!!

 

Love the critter work you did for DkSw. I need to pick up some of those down the road.

[Corporea]

wow, you really captured archer's disdain! 

[Gadgetman!]

All cats have personalities. Its just that most people doesn't realise that 'like a sack of potatoes' is actually a personality... 

 

We always had cats when I grew up, and I miss having one now, but being single, and sometimes away from home for days on short notice is not exactly ideal. 

 

We had all types of personalities, the lazy cuddler, the aloof(I dare you to melt me with a rough bellyrub), the mistrusting  one(who suddenly appears in my lap), the playful ones(Ouch! Mind the claws!)  

We had a cat that rang the doorbell when she wanted to go inside...   

My sister's very small and shy cat(she was often mistaken for a kitten) went full 'claws to the face' on a Terrier who dared to come close to HER home...  

 

My mother is feeding a flock of strays that come around to her home. We believe some of them at least have run from bad homes or have been abandoned. At least one really wants to come inside, but doesn't dare. I guess we could try to have them captured and put up for adoption, but I don't think it would go well.  (My mother have captured most of them and had them neutered, but yeah, they did not approve of being held captive...  )    

 

The DSM cats are on my shopping list and will soon be ordered, and may end up as Christmas gifts. 

[TaleSpinner]

Bear in mind, the Darksword cats are not these two.  These are much larger and will not be publically available.

[Gadgetman!]

I know. 

I wouldn't have minded if the DSM cats were bigger, though...   

 

 

[TaleSpinner]

Face Time

 

I really struggle with cats.  I guess I am more of a dog person, because I have never really gotten a cat face right on the first shot to date.  I started working on the loaf's face earlier in the week.  I worked for about 45 minutes and ended up scrapping the whole face and walked away in disgust with myself.

 

Today, I tried again.  This time I took it more systematically, breaking the face down to its components in my mind.  I started out rather rough and kept refining things until I had the shapes right, then added the details.

 

Here it is with the basic shapes blocked in:

 

 

Here it is with details:

 

 

They always look a big off until I get the ears on face ruff on, but I think it turned out pretty good.  Thoughts?

[Corporea]

cute!  I look at my babies close up on a regular basis since one is a notorious headbutter. Cats' upper faces always look wider to me who is used to a human nose. the space between the eyes always looks weird since the brows slide in differently than they do with our funky human foreheads. When I saw Avatar for the first time, the faces reminded me of cats- it was the brow line that did it. They made the nose look wide and feline. I'm not sure if that helps, but I found it interesting as a reference point.

 

It looks good; looks feline and the proportions seem right.  You might even be able to accentuate the brow some more, but kitties vary so trust your reference photo. There's such a variety in cat nose shapes, just like dogs (think bulldog versus shepherd)- some dip in, some are more flat, some straight.  As long as you're capturing the essence of your model, you're safe.  It's hard to do, so kudos!!!

[kristof65]

5 minutes ago, Corporea said:

 but kitties vary so trust your reference photo.

This. So much this. 

It doesn't look like MY kitty, but but it definitely looks feline. 

[Rainbow Sculptor]

On 8/9/2018 at 3:48 PM, Corporea said:

cute!  I look at my babies close up on a regular basis since one is a notorious headbutter. Cats' upper faces always look wider to me who is used to a human nose. the space between the eyes always looks weird since the brows slide in differently than they do with our funky human foreheads. When I saw Avatar for the first time, the faces reminded me of cats- it was the brow line that did it. They made the nose look wide and feline. I'm not sure if that helps, but I found it interesting as a reference point.

 

It looks good; looks feline and the proportions seem right.  You might even be able to accentuate the brow some more, but kitties vary so trust your reference photo. There's such a variety in cat nose shapes, just like dogs (think bulldog versus shepherd)- some dip in, some are more flat, some straight.  As long as you're capturing the essence of your model, you're safe.  It's hard to do, so kudos!!!

 

You are so right about the gap between the eyes! The big differences in cat faces that I've noticed (as opposed to human faces) is the triangular shape to the whole head. Very wide and flat up top and big eye sockets that seem to angle up on the outsides like elf eyes. Even the nose mimics the same triangular shape (again, this varies by model). 

[TaleSpinner]

I've done a lot more on these, but the photos I took suck.  I have the face and musculature of the sitting one done now.  On the loaf, I have the entire body from the shoulders back done.  I expect to finish sometime this week, God willing.  I'll try to get good pictures up soon.  I'll be working from home some now, since my ReaperCon entry is done, and I'll be sculpting these in the evening as well. It is always hard to take good pictures with my phone at lunch.