The Hearthsong - Charactober.

For this prompt

Found here @london65/charactober-week-4-ash-and-smoke-motif-6-prompts

So I really didn't stick with this one that well, but I m super fond of how it turned out so that's what's important.

The Hearthsong are cat spirites drawn to cozy places where humans(or other sentient beings) have shared content evenings. Where these cat spirites come from is much debated. Some say their the souls of cats that weren't done hanging out with humans, others that their little fire elementals. Yet others that they're a cross between a ghost and a fire spirite. Others say that when a cat dies from it's last life it becomes one of these and gets another 7 lives. The truth is, they're there own species that domesticated themselves much like cats did. They're not only drawn to places of deep contentment, but they also chase away the spirit equivalent of vermin and small ghosts. The quite murmur of their purrs is a good omen to anyone lucky enough to hear it.

Another bonus, any wood they sleep on/near is extra easy to use in the fire as their warmth dries it out.

Some self critque

I really wish I'd paid more attention to perspective early on in this work. As I think it would have improved it if I had. But otherwise I'm very pleased with how cozy my fire kitties are.

And now for the process.

I started with a sketch of the room. I wanted it to feel like a cozy living room in a cottage.

Then it was time to add the cats. i mostly doodled them from my imagination. I have spent a lot of time both drawing and watching cats. I love them.

I then started doing a second layer of sketching that refined the line work and added lines for the wooden board of the floor and walls.

Colour was next. I used procreates ability to build a colour pallet from a photo to make one built around a fire.

Then I had fun colouring in the cats. And adding some details to the cabin. I also really wish I had realized the perspective was wonky here instead of much later.

Then I added a lot of darks becuase I was going for a night time feel, and some of the cats looking at the viewer in annoyance since they weren't supposed to be there.

I then painstackinly tried to fix the perspective issue.. .but just made it look like the fire place was short. Which is fine. It makes the red kitty look that much more cozy.