My art process actually varies quite a lot, and a lot of the time I don't start with a sketch at all and just work straight in Illustrator. In this case though, I had this idea while sketching up some new ideas for CatCon, so I started with this little sketch.
I was too lazy to use my scanner (yep) so I just took a photo of it with my phone instead and then started drawing over it in Illustrator. I generally use a lot of circles and basic shapes first, then combine them and edit them with the pathfinder and pen tools. You can see how this cat is basically a circle, so I started with a big circle and added from there.
Once the basic cat shape was done, I added all the details like stars, whiskers, textures and patterns to finalize the design.
Then, time to colorize and add texture!
After finishing the design, I decided to turn it into a button using my button press, and then it's ready for the shop! I'm thinking of making it into stickers, patches, mugs or enamel pins too -- what product would you like it see next? Let me know in the comments below!
