Drips into fishes

As I was preparing the garage door, a single drop of white primer missed my drop cloth and hit the concrete. I tried to wipe it right up, but I was too late-it had already sunk in. Later I tried to scrub it out. This only made things worse, a small white spot became a large scrubbed out area-with a white spot still in the center.

Lisa suggested I paint over the paint drop with a fish, a fish that had wandered away from the underwater garage door mural. We then thought it would be fun, being great cat lovers, if the fish was a “cat” fish, a fish that looked like a cat (not a real catfish, which are very ugly).

I looked at catfish photos on the web and started sketching. The first image shows my progression of sketches, from top to bottom and left to right. The first sketch looked too much like a real catfish-thin, stiff and definitely not cute. In the sketches that followed the fish got rounder. Shading accentuated the ears, nose and “paws” (fins). The eyes and nose moved forward to give the feeling that you are looking down on them. The stiff body developed an “S” curve that really gave a feeling of motion through water.

I had a few more drips by the time I was done. We decided to honor some of our favorite cats, present and past. I developed the following sketches for a tuxedo cat fish, an orange and white Maine Coon cat fish and an all black cat fish.

Next article: cats on the concrete