Wild Cats Puzzle Concept

It’s June! Very soon, I’m coming into some big swathes of free time. I’m planning some new portfolio pieces (a wallpaper series? yes, please) and also revisiting old ideas. This sketch from the archives is calling my name: it’s a mood board for an 18”x24” puzzle concept that didn’t get picked up.

Greyscale sketch of map layout

Naturally, Wild Cats of the World is a puzzle theme after my own heart. I don’t consider myself a “cat person,” but I truly love cats. They probably hold such a fascination for me because they make a lot of beautiful shapes with their weird, bendy bodies. It makes them fun to draw! Do you think more illustrators consider themselves cat people rather than dog people? I have my suspicions.

One of my favorite cat facts is that their collarbones are free-floating: they are not attached to the rest of their skeletons except by muscle. In many other animals, the collarbones are attached by tendons or joints. This disconnected quality is what allows them to squeeze through extremely tight spaces relative to their body size. If their skull can fit through, the rest can probably squeeze by.

Okay. Enough cat facts for now.

Color Study

Without the pressure of a deadline, sometimes a project needs to percolate for a good, long while before you see where it’s supposed to go.