Character Study - A Sphynx Cat Called Nefertiti
Nefertiti the sphynx cat is my third character study for "Empower Your Picture Book Portfolio" course. I particularly like the fact that the end result was not at all the color I thought I'd end up going with at first.
Nefertiti Color Comparison
I originally wanted to do a pink cat because it looks pretty and girly. That being said, doing a black cat is definitely more challenging because I had to figure out how to bring out her details. Shading was also harder on a dark animal. It was only at the end of my process where I saw how the black cat just seems more unique and different for a children's book character.
The Process
Prior to researching references of sphynx cats, I was well aware that cats were not only highly regarded in Ancient Egypt but also worshipped. I had seen images of the cat statues before, but it was a surprise to me that sphynx cats are not cute at all in real life (in my opinion). This challenged me to try and beautify the sphynx cat through my sketches and led me to research Queen Nefertiti's jewelry for inspiration.
For the next round of sketches, I thought it would be nice if Nefertiti also has a friend. Her crocodile friend is the same crocodile as the one in my Pharaoh Child character study. These sketches are not final and required changes. My teacher helpfully pointed out that in two of the poses, Nefertiti's face shape is different from the other two. Also, the scared crocodile lost his proportions and needs to be redrawn.
Below is the final sketch with the aforementioned changes.
For colors, I looked at those that are realistically found on sphynx cats and Ancient Egyptian jewelry to keep with the historical theme of this character study.
A black cat with Ancient Egyptian jewelry presented me with an interesting color combination that I don't normally use: the three primary colors with black. I learnt that when working with these primary colors, going with variations was key.
