This piece was inspired by Gallery1988’s ‘Off The Leash’ group show, dedicated to the (in)famous pets of pop culture. Initially the gallery sent us a list of loveable companions to choose from, but I didn’t see some of my favorites, so I asked for permission to pick an alternative one. Originally I was going to illustrate ‘Ein’ from ‘Cowboy Bepop’, but seeing as how over saturated the world is with Corgi artwork, I determined a different path was preferable. Instead, I went with the furry felines from the ‘Sailor Moon’ series: Luna, Artemis, and Diana.
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| My first pass at the piece, it included a reference to each season which was too ambitious, and off topic. |
This piece went through a few layouts, until I finally landed on the one you see here. My original concept was to do a scene of ‘Usagi’s’ bedroom with the cats in various locations, along with Easter eggs littered about to represent the various seasons of the television series I was familiar with.
This proved to be incredibly difficult, and the further I got along with the image, the less it was about the cats, and the more it became about showcasing different elements from the series.
Eventually I scrapped the layout, and decided I needed a close-up of the cats instead, laying on ‘Usagi’s’ bed. I went about collecting image reference for the cats, and stumbled up a perfect layout of three cats sleeping together. The only problem was I needed a kitten to replace one of the adults in the image to complete my layout.
I would go through two different design options for Diana, before I was able to find a position, and image reference that I could work into the layout.
While Luna, and Artemis took me a fraction of the time Diana did, I was finally able to get my layout finalized.
I then set about cleaning up the image in Procreate (where I started the piece during the ‘sketching’ process).
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| My second pass, which was still too focused on 'Sailor Moon', and less the furry feline companions. |
I then exported the image into Adobe Photoshop where I would adjust the layout and the scale of the cats, until I was satisfied. Next I exported the image back to Procreate, where I began the painting process.
Animal fur is not my forte, and I spent a painstakingly long amount of time trying to get the lighting correct. During this phase I spent a lot of time trying to find good lighting reference, and even tried recruiting my own cat (to no avail…cats aren’t great models, or at least mine wasn’t).
After several long hours, I finally finished painting the image, and then took it into Photoshop to adjust the lighting as it was looking entirely too dark. This took me a few hours, and eventually I had something I felt was ready to print.
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| Incomplete sketch of Luna laying on top of Artemis. |
I then sent the image to the
printer for my initial proofing and had them produce two different versions (on
different papers).
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| Sketch of Diana, Artemis and Luna's kitten. |
I started the piece on October 30th, 2023 and finished it on December 9th, 2023. The initial sketching process took me approximately thirty nine (39) hours, and thirty three (33) minutes with the painting process taking me an additional sixty eight (68) hours, and sixteen (16) minutes, with another one (1) hour cleaning up the image, and three (3) hours in Photoshop editing it, for a grand total of one hundred seven (107) hours, and forty nine (49) minutes.
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| Sketch of all three cats (Artemis, Diana, Luna), atop Usagi's bed. |
The 14” x 11” image (printed on 100lb Cover, thank you SGX), was made for Gallery1988’s ‘Off The Leash’, a group show dedicated to the beloved ‘pets’ of film and television which opened January 26th, 2024 through February 10th, 2024 (online). At this time the prints are exclusively available via the gallery, so please check their website for all remaining works related to the show including mine.
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| Final full colored image of the three feline companions (Artemis, Diana, and Luna), from 'Sailor Moon'. |
For more information, or to see a catalog of my other work, please visit my online store here.
You can also find me on various social media platforms below doing a multitude of other artistic things that include hand lettering, and the occasional sculpting, crafting or painting.
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| Final 14" X 11" image on 100lb cover. |
Website: www.michaelstiles.com
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