And finally I get around to sharing the next installment of The Cat Boat Project which I had left off in May! Here is the digital version of the painting done on Procreate. The first one was drawn with Copic Markers, followed by the next in watercolor. For more about the Cat Boat “story” check out The Cat Boat I, but to sum up: Otherwise known as “De Poezenboot” in Dutch, the cat shelter is located in a houseboat moored on the Singel canal in Amsterdam. About 200-250 cats are rescued each year, be it stray, abandoned or taken in as excess litter, all well looked after with vaccination, chipped and neutered before being adopted. I had the honor of visiting the place a few months ago and so had to paint about it!
Importing the Original
To begin with, I merely imported the original Copic Marker painting onto the Procreate app and worked from there. Colors were then added on top with the airbrush, initially introducing a new layer for each element, including each cat, the top and bottom part of the boat and the water below. To create a hazy sky, I firstly went for FT Noisy Shader out of the FT Crayon brushes, followed by a layer of the Cloudy Day texture brush. So far so good!
Incorporating Texture
And here comes the fun part, texture! One of the things I enjoy about using Procreate. First thing that came to mind was adding a rippled effect to the water, and hence a Water brush of course and switching the light mode to Luminous. For the shelter, I went for Tea Towel and the Boat itself Bardot Wood Plank texture brushes. Now we’re talking! And of course, I made the inside of the boat pink with the Smoky Shader brush. For further effect, I used green Light Pen for some of the cat’s eyes. All those textures and visual effects are made possible by add-on brushes. And here we have it!
I would have introduced some fur on the cats with the Fur brush sets but saw little point as the cats are so tiny that one would hardly notice the furry texture. The aim of this painting was the kawaii anime look anyway! Of the three versions of the Cat Boat, I must say this last version, on digital, turned out the best. Most effective, and the characters really pop out. Introducing textures, made possible with digital art, is also a plus. The project, nevertheless, was in interesting exercise, and I might even try a mixed media version of it on a larger scale. Something to keep in mind when I have the chance!
Blog about the Copic Marker Cat Boat: The Cat Boat I
Blog about the Watercolor Cat Boat: The Cat Boat II
My Kawaii Quarter 