Creature Type

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

Today, I regretfully introduce you to Cyndy. I already had a Cindy, so I guess I just loved the name sooo much, I had to get creative with spelling this time. Sheesh. No offense to any Cyndys out there. Just sympathy.

I’m pretty sure Cyndy’s face is another endearing blatant plagiarism attempt, but I don’t remember the source. Copying the styles of cartoons or illustrations I liked was my way of learning when I was a kid, but it’s pretty amusing to look back on.

Cyndy has this sort of sporty, tomboy thing goin’ on, but then you notice the socks and Mary Janes… so weird. Based on some of my recent cat girls, I was clearly very inspired by the idea of shorts paired with unconventional footwear. I dig it.

Drawing-wise, I tried to experiment with combining some linework with my new favorite Photoshop brush* and the lineless technique I always use. I like the look! I’ll probably mess around some more like this. :)

*The brush is from Kyle T Webster’s Ultimate Photoshop Brush Pack 1, by the way! Brush pen setting. I really recommend it! The response to pressure sensitivity on my tablet is great. 

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

Maggs appears to be having a sort of identity crisis. Maybe I’m being too judgmental and her fashion is just too cutting edge for me to ~get. I’m usually a fan of rocking overalls, but I just don’t even know what’s going on here. Also, notice how I decided later on that she needed more boobage and added it with blue pen? Class act.

I wanted the new Maggs to look more like someone whose photo you’d see in FRUiTS rather than People of Walmart, but let’s be real, there’s a pretty big overlap there. And I love each and every one of them!

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

Linny’s bio page says she hales from Florida, so I’m going to assume she works at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. Just giving her the benefit of the doubt here.

Did some more experimenting this week. I might hate it. I can’t decide. :/

I always feel a little uncomfortable drawing the super sexy cat ladies… On one hand, I love drawing super sexy ladies, but on the other, I’m really walking the line with this whole anthropomorphic thing. Haha, does the furry potential creep you out?

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

So, let’s play another round of “Guess who Michelle plagiarized this week?”, shall we? When I was a kid, I loved cartoons and had dreams of working as an animator. I would go through an obsessive phase with a show or movie and spend a week drawing over and over, trying to master the style. I remember doing this with Hey! Arnold, Tiny Toons, Arthur, The Last Unicorn, and just about every Disney movie.

Although Mikayla doesn’t completely fit in this category, because she mostly looks like the rest of the cat girls, her head, eyes, and bangs are no doubt “inspired” by Angelica from the Rugrats.

I think it was healthy for me to experiment in different styles back then. It got me drawing in new ways and broke some bad habits.

I took idea this to heart and decided to mix it up a bit this week myself. When I first started this project, I wanted to redraw the cat girls in a very similar style so they would look like a cohesive collection at the end. However, the main goal I have for this whole project in the first place to make me draw often, commit to completing an entire project, and maybe learn some things. If drawing them in a similar style starts to feel stale and unexciting, I want to mix it up!

I drew Mikayla on paper instead of on the computer because I was craving some pen and ink for a change. I scanned the line art and messed with it a bit. I want to play with lines some more in my drawings.

Mikayla looks like a moody teenager on summer vacation, hanging around her neighborhood and grumpily slurping on slushees. Oh, youth! I want to go loiter in the park with junk food immediately. Summer sure is taking its sweet time to get here this year…

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

I’m going to go ahead and give myself the benefit of the doubt here and assume I meant “Augustine” for this lovely lady’s name. “Augstine” is interesting, though… However, forget that I misspelled her name because I must share how I butchered the name of her beloved homeland!

Impressive, right?

Augustine was already a pretty stylish girl–so on trend with the collared blouse! Do Australians do bolo ties, by the way? Is that an American thing? It makes for a cute accessory. She’s representin’ Queensland!

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

I guess I decided that Emily looked better from far away and drew very tiny. She looks mega hot to me with her long flared jeans and cropped top/vest combo, but perhaps she’s a “full on Monet” a la Clueless?

(btw I tried to go see if that clip was on YouTube for your viewing pleasure, and it is, but only in Italian? Okay.)

To up the 90s hottie factor, I gave Emily some gradient faded jeans and sweet embellished leather vest. She’s like, “What, this old thing?” Don’t play, girl. You know you’re stylin’ on ‘em.

I just have to mention that Emily reminds me a lot of the equally leggy and stunning Cammila. Maybe it’s the sass and confidence, but I definitely think that Cammila could rock this look just as well! :)

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

This week I present another stunning show of creativity from young Michelle–Anastasia! Who is pretty much just a feline version of Anastasia from the animated film of the same name that–shocker–happened to be released in 1997. Unfortunately there are more ridiculous instances of plagiarism to come from the BBOC, so I can’t even mock this one too harshly.

For 2013 Anastasia, I tried to give her a slightly more accurate Russian formal look and it was really fun to draw! I took inspiration mostly from this Russian imperial court gown from 1900. Anastasia’s looking a bit nervous about this whole situation and I don’t blame her. Hopefully this alternate universe cat lady version doesn’t share a similar tragic fate.

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

I’m really into Mandy’s outfit. Rocking a pair of comfy slacks and keds, but keeping it sexy up top with a very dramatic long-sleeved, mega-crop top. A+ look in my book.

I really enjoyed redrawing Mandy! She definitely joins my VIP club of coolest cat ladies who I would enjoy drawing each week, over and over, amen. Completely coincidentally, Mandy ended up looking a lot like young Lauryn Hill, right? I’m sure she’d take that as a lovely compliment, so there you go!

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

I’ve changed in many ways as I’ve grown up. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you’re a negative Nancy), my taste in fashion is not one of those ways. When I was a little kid, I loved all things feminine and loved to dress very girly and flamboyantly. I lost my way a bit in the pre-teen through teenage years. I hid myself in large sweatshirts and jeans, trying not to care what I looked like because I believed no matter how hard I tried, I would never look as cute as I wanted to. Now I throw all that self-conscious trash out the window and do what I please. I’ve regressed back to my frilly dress childhood and love it.

The point of that rambling being that I’ve always seemed to adore the look of pleated skirts, cropped tops, knee socks, and Mary Janes. And bows! Bows forever. That seems to be a occurring look for my cat girls and I can’t say I mind.

2013 Amanda has a little more attitude in her smile. She’s more than meets the eye, I think.

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Last week I warned that I didn’t have for a BBOC post. Andrew graciously offered to do a redraw for me, but I was a bad girlfriend and totally forgot to post his drawing! So I’m going to share it now. :)

Hahaha, he chose to draw Mary because he’s especially fond of the scar thingy on her boob. But really, why pick anyone else? Mary is the coolest for sure. I think it’s pretty great! He drew it with a mouse, so he gets even more bonus points!

The Big Book of Cats is a weekly illustration project. In 1998, I was 11 years old and decided to make a 200 page encyclopedia of anthropomorphic cat girls. I’ve made a vow to honor this horrific piece of literature and redraw every cat girl and post a new drawing along with the original for the internet’s amusement. Want to know more? Read my official introduction here and check out all the drawings so far here!

You’re welcome and I’m so so sorry.

- – -

This week I wanted to do a little something different! Periodically, I want to share extra tidbits from the book, thoughts on the project, and some bonus sketches of girls you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting. :)

I’ve mentioned before that the Big Book of Cats is laid out in spreads. The drawing of each cat girl is on the left page and on the right is a little survey of weird information about each girl. The only time I really showed what the spreads look like is when I posted my very first re-draw, which was Suzzie!

Let’s look at some of the other girls’ little surveys, shall we?

First of all, sorry about the less-than-stellar scans. You can see the next page through the paper. Oops!

To add another layer of completely unnecessary, exhaustive detail, I tried to fill out each survey in the girl’s personal handwriting. Jenny’s is cute and spunky and suits her personality I think. You’ll notice that sometimes I stray from the specific details on fur colors and such. I usually give the original a try, but if the colors don’t end up looking interesting or don’t convey the girl’s personality, I switch it up. Jenny needed to have more vibrant colors, so I made her orange rather than gray.

I kind of hope I intended for her name to be “Cecilia Mocha”, which would be less cringe-worthy to read and a cuter French reference, but c’est la vie. I don’t think 11 year old Michelle was that clever. I had lovely cursive handwriting but didn’t seem to know quite how to spell “diamonds” yet either. Her lips are described as “thicker” but they really don’t look it, do they? Yes, those are supposed to be lip prints. The Big Book of Cats survey is more intense than a police report!

Okay, the name “Kitty Matter” just grosses me out. What is that about? Clearly I wanted Kitty to have more loopy, sexy handwriting, but it just gets increasingly illegible. I have no idea what state she’s supposed to be from, but I’ll take a wild guess and say I meant Kansas. Blade hair? Blode? Hopefully blonde. Kitty, you’re drunk! At least it’s consistent and I still can’t spell diamond.

I think Alison’s last name is supposed to be pronounced like “McKey”? Hopefully? Whatever. I can spell blonde now, but still not diamond! Obviously practice doesn’t necessarily equal perfect. Alison is from my home state, Missouri, another reference to the fact that she was inspired by a classmate of mine at the time.

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I got sick of trying to come up with unique paw prints every time, so about half way through, I drew a big faux stamp across the bottom that says CANCELED and just stopped doing it. Haha.

The survey parts are definitely more embarrassing than the drawings at this point. I only consistently share the original drawing because sometimes the information adds a whole other layer of young, middle-class white girl ignorance that I just don’t need to remind the world of. You’ll see more stereotypical interpretations in coming weeks–Shawna defintely wasn’t my only attempt at representing a culture that was foreign to me at the time, but honestly may have been the most sensitive.