Mandala#

A black and white drawing. A person is in the middle of the drawing, they seemed surprised: eyes wide open looking at your the viewer, mouth half open. Their hands, are positioned to protect something: two tinly skeletons, dancing into one of the palms. Around their face, 5 giant cat faces surround them. The one of the left has the mouth open and eyes closed, and is getting captured by a spiraling strand of hair. The one of the top left has strands falling to its head that gives him a neglected but funny look, and it looks with curiosity. The one at the top looks at you, the viewer, with round eyes. It has two big combed strands of hair giving it a more serious look. The one at the top left is looking down, and has very long straight hair strands. The last one, on the bottom left, is angrily biting a strand of hair that then falls on the shoulder of the person. The multiple hair strands are detailed, and the background is fully dark. It feels both funny and somehow alarming. figcaption — Final drawing. | Full size

Concept#

I had the idea while I was in a train for Paris in late November 2023. I was trying to find new ways to play with my favorite topic of the time: human, cats, skeletons.

the original drawing figcaption — The original sketch on an A6 piece of paper | Full size

The initial concept was « a mandala of cats » to which I added a Mary pose for the character.

Examples figcaption — I didn't have those specific images in mind when I had the idea, but was inspired by these styles. Left: William Adolphe Bouguereau, The Virgin of the Lilies, 1899. Right: A mandala I found on the internet | Full size

The second sketch was made on A2 paper.

A rough sketch with the same idea as the original, but with more flowing hair. figcaption — Without thinking too much about it, I used the hair as a way to construct the image and fill the gaps between the cats | Full size

A closeup on the face. The features are more detailed, with sleepy eyes, an half open mouth, and more hair figcaption — During that period I was focusing a lot on face features, especially lips. | Full size

The sketch with more cats. They are entangled with hair strands. The hands of the character are not drawn yet. figcaption — Instead of just drawing standing cats which felt boring, I decided to make them more alive by playing with the hair strands. | Full size

A closeup with the hands redraw. figcaption — I took a picture of my own hand to draw those. I added dancing skeletons instead of a skull, inspired by Fantasia's Night On Bald Mountain. | Full size

On the topic of Night on Bald Mountain, check its amazing concept art by by Bill Tytla.

The finalized sketch, with all 5 cats surrounding the main character, that keeps smalls dancing skeletons in its hands. figcaption — The "final" initial sketch. | Full size

The sketch was then left untouched for a few months, as a lot of details felt wrong and I didn't know how to approach the inking. More than ever, I felt the gigantic hair strands were going too far from the initial idea and were too distracting.

I started iterating on the sketch using a tablet. I did several tests: removing hair from the body, removing most strands, and more.

An edited version of the sketch figcaption — My first test was removing the hair from the body, to regain some clarity. | Full size

An ever more edited version of the sketch. The wild hair strands are gone. figcaption — This version tried to go back to the initial A5 sketch and see if it could work. It didn't. | Full size

Another version, this time with two strands and cats looking at each others. figcaption — This version tried several things, like directing the viewer's eyes using the cats sights. The left strand made me realize I could maybe add cat ears to the character and use them as the source of the air surrounding the cats. | Full size

Part of the sketch. The hair is now going out of the head and rolling around one of the cats, and giving bangs to another. figcaption — This is when it clicked, when I decided to rework how the hair is used, from just flowing without purpose to give the cats haircuts. | Full size

The sketch now features 5 cats having different hairstyles. figcaption — I redrew three of the cats to make them less cartoony and fit better in the composition. | Full size

Same drawing but the head is smaller, as well as the eyes. figcaption — Finally, I reworked the face to reduce its size, mostly for the eyes. I redrew them entirely and adjusted the hair to have two proper cat ears made of hair. | Full size

The initial A2 paper sketch on the left, and a printed version of the new one on the right to compare them. figcaption — Still unsatisfied with the eyes, I decided to go for a more surprised attitude and opened them more, which felt more in tune with what is happening in the drawing. Then I printed the sketch in several A4 sheets and reconstructed the drawing in its initial size. | Full size

A sheet of paper with an in-progress drawing. We can see the printed sketch below through the paper. figcaption — I started the inking by doing a pencil pass, then used drawing pencils. Notice the way too detailed bangs. | Full size

Four inking styles for the hair. figcaption — I was unsure about how to ink the hair. I did several tests and if some of them were great, like the top right corner, it was very easy to fail it and having to start over. I then searched for another approach. | Full size

Detail on the inking, lots of strands flowing into a spiral. figcaption — I finally made it work after switching to a pencil brush and doing lines that I filled after. | Full size

All the cats and hair inked figcaption — Once the process was discovered I managed to apply it to the rest of the drawing, and finish the inking. | Full size

The A2 paper sheet was then scanned by a professional, retouched to remove imperfections and add contrast, and a black background with a white outline.